NICE Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:NICE)

NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 3,241 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 48% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,191 call options.

NICE Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ NICE opened at $142.99 on Friday. NICE has a 12-month low of $142.77 and a 12-month high of $270.73. The company has a market cap of $8.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $167.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $172.49.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.96 by ($0.71). NICE had a net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $721.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $718.47 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that NICE will post 9.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NICE. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of NICE in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (down previously from $215.00) on shares of NICE in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Northland Securities reduced their price target on NICE from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. DA Davidson reduced their price target on NICE from $300.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on NICE from $260.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $231.64.

Institutional Trading of NICE

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NICE during the fourth quarter valued at about $313,808,000. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of NICE by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,670,327 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $283,349,000 after purchasing an additional 151,528 shares during the last quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. lifted its position in shares of NICE by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. now owns 1,660,037 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $281,941,000 after purchasing an additional 36,865 shares during the last quarter. HMI Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of NICE by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. HMI Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,642,770 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $279,008,000 after purchasing an additional 186,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its position in shares of NICE by 21.6% during the third quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,575,645 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $273,642,000 after purchasing an additional 279,375 shares during the last quarter. 63.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.