Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Infosys (NYSE:INFY)

Infosys Ltd. (NYSE:INFY) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders acquired 12,537 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 49% compared to the average daily volume of 8,393 put options.

Institutional Trading of Infosys

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Infosys by 7.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,790,666 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $91,742,000 after purchasing an additional 469,843 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Infosys by 17.0% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 26,776,494 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $361,750,000 after purchasing an additional 3,893,801 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Infosys by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,490,358 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $87,685,000 after buying an additional 521,169 shares during the period. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Infosys in the 1st quarter worth $10,708,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Infosys by 31.9% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,156,539 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,625,000 after buying an additional 279,954 shares in the last quarter. 16.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Infosys Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:INFY traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $10.88. 4,947,604 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,732,840. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $11.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.47. Infosys has a 1 year low of $10.30 and a 1 year high of $30.00.

Infosys (NYSE:INFY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.21 by ($0.01). Infosys had a return on equity of 33.91% and a net margin of 16.38%.The business had revenue of $4.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.08 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Infosys will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Infosys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $9.00 target price (down from $10.00) on shares of Infosys in a research note on Friday, July 24th. HSBC set a $11.47 target price on Infosys and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Infosys in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $13.00 price objective on Infosys and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $11.59.

Infosys Company Profile

Infosys Ltd. is a digital services and consulting company, which engages in the provision of end-to-end business solutions. It operates through the following segments: Financial Services, Retail, Communication, Energy, Utilities, Resources, and Services, Manufacturing, Hi-Tech, Life Sciences, and All Other. The company was founded by Dinesh Krishnan Swamy, Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Narayana Ramarao Nagavara Murthy, Raghavan N. S., Ashok Arora, Nandan M. Nilekani, and S. D. Shibulal on July 2, 1981 and is headquartered in Bangalore, India.