Guidewire Software Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:GWRE)

Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE:GWRE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 1,297 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,563% compared to the typical daily volume of 78 call options.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Michael George Rosenbaum sold 1,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.70, for a total transaction of $322,980.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 234,468 shares in the company, valued at $54,091,767.60. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider James Winston King sold 2,482 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.65, for a total value of $547,653.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 37,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,261,356.65. This trade represents a 6.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 21,342 shares of company stock worth $4,843,857. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guidewire Software

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GWRE. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in Guidewire Software by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 8,756 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,476,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Guidewire Software during the fourth quarter worth $223,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in shares of Guidewire Software during the fourth quarter worth $3,456,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Guidewire Software by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 50,704 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,548,000 after buying an additional 13,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Guidewire Software by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,455,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,425,434,000 after buying an additional 90,618 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Guidewire Software from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Guidewire Software from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Guidewire Software from $271.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Guidewire Software from $250.00 to $281.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Guidewire Software from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Guidewire Software has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $250.92.

Guidewire Software Stock Up 0.4%

NYSE GWRE opened at $224.07 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 3.23, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $229.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $207.21. The company has a market capitalization of $18.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 560.19, a PEG ratio of 19.79 and a beta of 1.16. Guidewire Software has a 1-year low of $132.01 and a 1-year high of $263.20.

Guidewire Software (NYSE:GWRE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, June 3rd. The technology company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.41. Guidewire Software had a net margin of 3.04% and a return on equity of 6.96%. The company had revenue of $293.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $286.40 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Guidewire Software will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Guidewire Software Company Profile

Guidewire Software, Inc provides a platform for property and casualty (P&C) insurers worldwide. The company offers Guidewire InsuranceSuite Cloud, such as PolicyCenter Cloud, BillingCenter Cloud, and ClaimCenter Cloud applications. It also provides Guidewire InsuranceNow, a cloud-based platform that offers policy, billing, and claims management functionality to insurers; and Guidewire InsuranceSuite for Self-Managed.