Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Roblox (NYSE:RBLX)

Roblox Co. (NYSE:RBLX - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 49,406 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 35% compared to the average volume of 36,609 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on RBLX. Benchmark lifted their price objective on Roblox from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Roblox from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $83.00 price objective on shares of Roblox in a report on Thursday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Roblox from $63.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Roblox from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Roblox has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David Baszucki sold 229,167 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.48, for a total transaction of $12,026,684.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 221,983 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,649,667.84. This represents a 50.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Matthew D. Kaufman sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.99, for a total transaction of $347,940.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 364,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,122,509.56. The trade was a 1.62% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,323,985 shares of company stock worth $164,299,582 in the last ninety days. 12.92% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Roblox

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RBLX. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Roblox by 89.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 39,658,528 shares of the company's stock worth $2,294,642,000 after purchasing an additional 18,715,837 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Roblox by 74,400.8% during the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 17,335,594 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,063,365,000 after acquiring an additional 17,312,325 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Roblox by 217.4% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,770,427 shares of the company's stock valued at $504,387,000 after acquiring an additional 6,007,322 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Roblox by 1,084.2% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,813,347 shares of the company's stock valued at $278,500,000 after acquiring an additional 4,406,885 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Roblox by 8.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,640,317 shares of the company's stock worth $3,359,854,000 after buying an additional 4,400,624 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.46% of the company's stock.

Roblox Price Performance

Shares of Roblox stock traded up $2.84 on Monday, hitting $89.82. 10,054,135 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,773,363. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $67.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.00. Roblox has a 1-year low of $33.88 and a 1-year high of $89.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -61.95 and a beta of 1.46.

Roblox (NYSE:RBLX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.41) by $0.09. Roblox had a negative return on equity of 665.98% and a negative net margin of 25.97%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.43) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Roblox will post -1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Roblox

Roblox Corporation develops and operates an online entertainment platform in the United States and internationally. It offers Roblox Studio, a free toolset that allows developers and creators to build, publish, and operate 3D experiences, and other content; Roblox Client, an application that allows users to explore 3D experience; and Roblox Cloud, which provides services and infrastructure that power the platform.