Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Honest (NASDAQ:HNST)

The Honest Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:HNST) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 6,455 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 114% compared to the average daily volume of 3,022 call options.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Brendan Sheehey sold 12,059 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.65, for a total value of $44,015.35. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 568,588 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,075,346.20. This trade represents a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Stephen Winchell sold 10,841 shares of Honest stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.65, for a total value of $39,569.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 410,257 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,497,438.05. The trade was a 2.57% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 131,890 shares of company stock worth $481,399. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Honest

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Honest in the 1st quarter valued at $10,554,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Honest by 98.8% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,073,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,445,000 after purchasing an additional 1,527,080 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Honest in the first quarter valued at about $3,550,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Honest by 138.2% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 899,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,229,000 after purchasing an additional 522,002 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Honest by 187.8% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 542,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,760,000 after purchasing an additional 353,858 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on HNST shares. Zacks Research upgraded Honest from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered Honest from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Telsey Advisory Group cut their price objective on Honest from $6.00 to $3.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating on shares of Honest in a report on Thursday. Finally, Lake Street Capital lowered Honest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $3.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Honest has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.96.

Honest Stock Performance

Shares of HNST traded down $0.76 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $2.55. 7,604,270 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,079,403. The company has a market cap of $283.18 million, a PE ratio of 50.51 and a beta of 2.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $3.76 and its 200-day moving average is $4.36. Honest has a 52 week low of $2.31 and a 52 week high of $8.97.

Honest (NASDAQ:HNST) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.02. Honest had a return on equity of 3.84% and a net margin of 1.66%.The firm had revenue of $92.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.43 million. Honest has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Honest will post -0.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Honest

The Honest Company, Inc manufactures and sells diapers and wipes, skin and personal care, and household and wellness products. The company also offers baby clothing and nursery bedding products. It sells its products through digital and retail sales channels, such as its website and third-party ecommerce sites, as well as brick and mortar retailers.