Traders Buy Large Volume of Rambus Call Options (NASDAQ:RMBS)

Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 3,671 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 94% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,895 call options.

Rambus Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:RMBS opened at $124.77 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a PE ratio of 59.13 and a beta of 1.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $97.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $89.79. Rambus has a 1 year low of $40.12 and a 1 year high of $135.75.

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The semiconductor company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.18). Rambus had a net margin of 33.72% and a return on equity of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $178.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $175.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Rambus will post 1.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RMBS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Cfra Research lowered Rambus from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Rambus from $114.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Susquehanna set a $100.00 target price on shares of Rambus and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Rambus in a research report on Thursday. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Rambus in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Eric B. Stang sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.35, for a total value of $511,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 24,394 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,496,725.90. This represents a 17.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Rambus

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Rambus by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,701,773 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,323,525,000 after purchasing an additional 140,948 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Rambus by 138.4% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,787,327 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $178,445,000 after buying an additional 1,618,133 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Rambus by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,687,691 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $172,086,000 after buying an additional 35,744 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Rambus by 4.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,432,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $253,418,000 after buying an additional 109,908 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Rambus by 13.2% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,019,504 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $129,289,000 after buying an additional 235,253 shares during the period. 88.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Rambus

Rambus Inc is a technology licensing company specializing in semiconductor and system-level interface solutions. Founded in 1990 by Stanford University researchers Mike Farmwald and Mark Horowitz, Rambus established its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company initially gained prominence by developing high-speed DRAM interface technology and securing a broad patent portfolio covering memory architecture, data signaling and power management innovations.

Today, Rambus licenses its proprietary intellectual property (IP) to semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators worldwide.