Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Nice (NASDAQ:NICE)

Nice (NASDAQ:NICE) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 8,433 put options on the stock. Thisisanincreaseof230% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,553 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NICE. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new position in Nice in the 4th quarter valued at about $313,808,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in Nice by 1,125.3% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 768,737 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $118,516,000 after purchasing an additional 705,997 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. purchased a new position in Nice in the 1st quarter valued at about $98,485,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Nice by 218.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 908,014 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $139,989,000 after purchasing an additional 623,014 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in Nice by 95.7% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 606,341 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $102,981,000 after purchasing an additional 296,514 shares in the last quarter. 63.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nice Stock Down 13.6%

Nice stock opened at $127.85 on Friday. Nice has a 52 week low of $127.00 and a 52 week high of $200.65. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $161.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $159.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a PE ratio of 17.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.98.

Nice (NASDAQ:NICE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 14th. The technology company reported $3.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.99 by $0.02. Nice had a net margin of 16.77% and a return on equity of 16.37%. The business had revenue of $726.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $713.18 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.64 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Nice will post 9.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on NICE shares. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Nice in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Nice from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Nice from $195.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $182.00 target price (up from $153.00) on shares of Nice in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Nice in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.00.

Nice Company Profile

NICE Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud platforms for AI-driven digital business solutions worldwide. It offers CXone, a cloud native open platform; Enlighten, an AI engine for the customer engagement market; and smart self service enable organizations to address consumers' needs; and journey orchestration solutions that empower organizations to connect and route customers to deal with the customer's request, and connects them using real time AI-based routing.