Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Sabre (NASDAQ:SABR)

Sabre Co. (NASDAQ:SABR) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Traders acquired 15,645 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 382% compared to the average volume of 3,249 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sabre

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SABR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Sabre by 375.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,530,073 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,615,000 after purchasing an additional 1,208,269 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sabre during the 4th quarter worth about $123,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Sabre by 51.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 786,425 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,885,000 after purchasing an additional 267,778 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Sabre by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,654,980 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,691,000 after acquiring an additional 194,356 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Sabre by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,673,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,109,000 after acquiring an additional 30,236 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SABR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $4.00 target price on shares of Sabre in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Sabre from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $3.50 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Bank of America upgraded Sabre from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $4.50 to $6.10 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Sabre from $5.00 to $3.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Sabre from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sabre presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.28.

Sabre Trading Up 15.8 %

SABR stock traded up $0.35 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $2.54. The stock had a trading volume of 9,744,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,421,202. Sabre has a 52-week low of $1.93 and a 52-week high of $4.63. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.41. The company has a market cap of $978.69 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.39.

Sabre (NASDAQ:SABR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The information technology services provider reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $714.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.60 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Sabre will post 0.04 EPS for the current year.

About Sabre

Sabre Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as software and technology company for travel industry in the United States, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Travel Solutions and Hospitality Solutions. The Travel Solutions segment operates a business-to-business travel marketplace that offers travel content, such as inventory, prices, and availability from a range of travel suppliers, including airlines, hotels, car rental brands, rail carriers, cruise lines, and tour operators with a network of travel buyers comprising online and offline travel agencies, travel management companies, and corporate travel departments.