Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on SEALSQ (NASDAQ:LAES)

Key Points

• Investors bought 35,791 call options on SEALSQ (about a 49% jump above the daily average) as LAES stock traded 30,044,659 shares—well above its 8.83M average—and rose 4.4% to $2.71.
• Company insiders have been selling: the CFO sold 10,000 shares at $2.92 and the VP sold 15,000 at $2.20, with insiders offloading 90,000 shares worth $231,250 in the past 90 days.
• Institutional ownership is low at 1.25% though firms like MIRAE Asset opened a roughly $1.37M position, and analysts are mixed with a MarketBeat consensus of "Hold" and a $6 price target.

SEALSQ Corp. (NASDAQ:LAES - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 35,791 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 49% compared to the average daily volume of 23,972 call options.

SEALSQ Trading Up 4.4%

LAES stock traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $2.71. 30,044,659 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,830,303. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $3.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.33. SEALSQ has a one year low of $1.99 and a one year high of $8.71.

SEALSQ (NASDAQ:LAES - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, March 16th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $6.71 million for the quarter.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO John Charles O'hara sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.92, for a total value of $29,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 165,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $482,334.36. This trade represents a 5.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Jean-Pierre Enguent sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.20, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 15,000 shares in the company, valued at $33,000. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 90,000 shares of company stock valued at $231,250 in the last 90 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SEALSQ

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LAES. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. acquired a new position in SEALSQ during the first quarter worth about $1,365,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in SEALSQ by 383.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 62,449 shares of the company's stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 49,534 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in SEALSQ during the second quarter worth about $76,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in SEALSQ during the second quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in SEALSQ during the second quarter worth about $77,000. Institutional investors own 1.25% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on LAES shares. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of SEALSQ in a report on Friday, January 9th. Maxim Group set a $8.00 target price on shares of SEALSQ in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of SEALSQ to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, December 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of SEALSQ from $7.00 to $4.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut SEALSQ from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, April 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, SEALSQ presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $6.00.

SEALSQ Company Profile

SEALSQ Corp, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets semiconductor chips in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It offers semiconductors, such as VaultIC secure elements, secure arm platform, and smart card reader chips; identity provisioning services, such as IoT device provisioning and chip provisioning; and managed PKI for IoT solutions and trust services. The company provides device-to-cloud authentication, device attestation for matter, GSMA root certificate, device-to-device authentication, data protection, anti-counterfeiting and brand protection, security access, device ID provisioning, identity lifecycle management, and satellite IoT connectivity solutions.

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