Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Five Below Call Options (NASDAQ:FIVE)

Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 16,766 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 346% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,760 call options.

Five Below Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FIVE opened at $76.11 on Friday. Five Below has a 12-month low of $64.87 and a 12-month high of $187.83. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $88.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.51. The firm has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a PE ratio of 15.69, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.11.

Five Below (NASDAQ:FIVE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The specialty retailer reported $3.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.38 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.38 billion. Five Below had a return on equity of 18.03% and a net margin of 7.02%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.65 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Five Below will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FIVE shares. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Five Below from $85.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Five Below in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com cut Five Below from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on Five Below from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on Five Below from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Five Below presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.00.

Insider Activity at Five Below

In other Five Below news, CAO Eric M. Specter sold 5,494 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.76, for a total value of $498,635.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 57,267 shares in the company, valued at $5,197,552.92. This trade represents a 8.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FIVE. Steadfast Capital Management LP bought a new position in Five Below in the 4th quarter valued at about $123,601,000. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in shares of Five Below by 86.0% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,320,212 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $243,529,000 after acquiring an additional 1,072,642 shares in the last quarter. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in Five Below in the third quarter valued at approximately $68,649,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP acquired a new position in Five Below during the third quarter valued at approximately $64,981,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Five Below during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,933,000.

Five Below Company Profile

Five Below, Inc operates as a specialty value retailer in the United States. The company offers range of accessories, which includes novelty socks, sunglasses, jewelry, scarves, gloves, hair accessories, athletic tops and bottoms, and t-shirts, as well as nail polish, lip gloss, fragrance, and branded cosmetics; and personalized living space products, such as lamps, posters, frames, fleece blankets, plush items, pillows, candles, incense, lighting, novelty décor, accent furniture, and related items, as well as provides storage options.