Snowflake Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:SNOW)

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 63,935 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 25% compared to the average daily volume of 50,965 call options.

Snowflake Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SNOW traded up $12.15 during trading on Friday, reaching $168.86. 6,748,801 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,613,845. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.78 billion, a P/E ratio of -41.72 and a beta of 1.14. Snowflake has a 52-week low of $120.10 and a 52-week high of $280.67. The company has a 50-day moving average of $217.23 and a 200-day moving average of $226.74.

Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.18 billion. Snowflake had a negative net margin of 30.76% and a negative return on equity of 45.91%. The company’s revenue was up 28.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Snowflake will post -2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on SNOW shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Snowflake in a research note on Monday. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Snowflake in a research report on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Snowflake in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup cut their target price on Snowflake from $310.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Snowflake from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Snowflake presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.58.

Insider Activity at Snowflake

In other Snowflake news, EVP Christian Kleinerman sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.53, for a total value of $2,495,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 512,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $127,871,648.50. This trade represents a 1.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Vivek Raghunathan sold 11,801 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.44, for a total value of $2,601,412.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 218,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,060,328.80. This represents a 5.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 562,940 shares of company stock worth $122,190,090 over the last three months. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Snowflake

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in Snowflake by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 12,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,801,000 after acquiring an additional 788 shares during the period. Copia Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Snowflake by 104.5% during the fourth quarter. Copia Wealth Management now owns 405 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Aspen Investment Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Snowflake by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Aspen Investment Management Inc now owns 1,211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $266,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Snowflake by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 55,473 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,169,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC boosted its holdings in Snowflake by 112.6% during the 4th quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 7,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,599,000 after acquiring an additional 3,860 shares during the period. 65.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Snowflake Company Profile

Snowflake Inc is a cloud-native data platform company that provides a suite of services for storing, processing and analyzing large volumes of data. Its core offering, often described as the Snowflake Data Cloud, combines data warehousing, data lake and data sharing capabilities in a single managed service delivered across major public cloud providers. The platform is designed to support analytics, data engineering, data science and application workloads with a focus on scalability, concurrency and simplified administration.

Key products and capabilities include a multi-cluster, shared-data architecture that separates compute from storage; continuous data ingestion and streaming; support for structured and semi-structured data formats; tools for data governance, security and compliance; and developer frameworks for building data applications.