Maplebear Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:CART)

Maplebear Inc. (NASDAQ:CART) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 8,267 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 144% compared to the average daily volume of 3,393 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CART has been the subject of a number of research reports. Argus raised shares of Maplebear to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Raymond James Financial raised Maplebear from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Maplebear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Weiss Ratings raised Maplebear from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Maplebear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ravi Gupta sold 181,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.51, for a total transaction of $7,513,310.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 741,523 shares in the company, valued at $30,780,619.73. This represents a 19.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lisa Blackwood-Kapral sold 9,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.25, for a total transaction of $377,947.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 58,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,373,582.75. This represents a 13.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 24.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CART. Kingdon Capital Management L.L.C. grew its holdings in shares of Maplebear by 40.6% in the 3rd quarter. Kingdon Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 450,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,542,000 after acquiring an additional 130,000 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Maplebear by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 437,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,686,000 after purchasing an additional 63,666 shares during the last quarter. Ruffer LLP bought a new position in Maplebear in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,567,000. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Maplebear during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $8,703,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Maplebear by 1,741.4% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 30,088 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,353,000 after purchasing an additional 28,454 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.09% of the company’s stock.

Maplebear Price Performance

CART opened at $44.14 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.46. Maplebear has a fifty-two week low of $32.73 and a fifty-two week high of $53.50. The company has a market cap of $10.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.88.

Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.01). Maplebear had a return on equity of 18.67% and a net margin of 12.50%.The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. Maplebear’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Maplebear will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

Maplebear Company Profile

Maplebear, Inc, doing business as Instacart, operates a leading online grocery and essentials marketplace that connects consumers, retail partners and personal shoppers through its digital platform. The company enables customers to order groceries, household items and specialty products for same-day or scheduled delivery, as well as in-store pickup. By integrating its technology with retailers’ existing inventory and point-of-sale systems, Maplebear streamlines the shopping experience and provides real-time availability and pricing.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Maplebear has grown from a regional startup to a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ under the ticker CART.