OPENLANE Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:KAR)

OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 2,353 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 2,956% compared to the typical volume of 77 call options.

Institutional Trading of OPENLANE

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in OPENLANE during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,822,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of OPENLANE in the fourth quarter worth $4,115,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in OPENLANE by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,475,741 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $41,799,000 after purchasing an additional 35,214 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in OPENLANE in the fourth quarter valued at $254,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in OPENLANE by 344.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 178,964 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $3,022,000 after purchasing an additional 138,720 shares during the last quarter. 99.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Stephens raised OPENLANE from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $26.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of OPENLANE in a research note on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of OPENLANE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of OPENLANE from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, OPENLANE has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.20.

OPENLANE Price Performance

KAR stock traded up $0.73 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $20.01. 938,681 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 722,857. OPENLANE has a twelve month low of $15.44 and a twelve month high of $22.47. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a 50-day moving average of $20.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.30.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The specialty retailer reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $455.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $416.64 million. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 6.27%. On average, analysts forecast that OPENLANE will post 0.95 EPS for the current year.

OPENLANE Company Profile

OPENLANE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital marketplace for used vehicles, which connects sellers and buyers in North America, Europe, the Philippines, and Uruguay. The company operates through two segments, Marketplace and Finance. The Marketplace segment offers digital marketplace services for buying and selling used vehicles.