Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR)

Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors bought 18,614 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 103% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,147 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AUR has been the topic of several research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Aurora Innovation from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research report on Monday, February 9th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Aurora Innovation from $5.50 to $4.70 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Aurora Innovation from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.54.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aurora Innovation

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aurora Innovation by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 274,809,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,055,269,000 after purchasing an additional 16,933,373 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aurora Innovation by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,567,323 shares of the company’s stock valued at $616,579,000 after purchasing an additional 17,818,179 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Aurora Innovation by 35.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 71,298,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $384,299,000 after purchasing an additional 18,820,542 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aurora Innovation by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,488,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,535,000 after purchasing an additional 1,498,515 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Aurora Innovation by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,544,319 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,533,171 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 44.71% of the company’s stock.

Aurora Innovation Price Performance

AUR stock traded up $0.68 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $7.21. The company had a trading volume of 12,599,094 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,123,322. Aurora Innovation has a 1 year low of $3.60 and a 1 year high of $8.19. The company has a market capitalization of $14.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.02 and a beta of 2.58. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $4.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $4.47.

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.47 million. On average, equities analysts predict that Aurora Innovation will post -0.47 EPS for the current year.

Aurora Innovation Company Profile

Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.

The company’s core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.