Investors Buy High Volume of NICE Call Options (NASDAQ:NICE)

NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors bought 3,241 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 48% compared to the average daily volume of 2,191 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of NICE from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 17th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on NICE from $300.00 to $225.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on NICE from $176.00 to $161.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Northland Securities cut their price objective on NICE from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of NICE from $279.00 to $228.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $231.64.

Institutional Trading of NICE

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Avion Wealth bought a new stake in NICE during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NICE in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NICE by 200.0% during the fourth quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 150 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NICE during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of NICE by 208.3% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 148 shares of the technology company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.34% of the company's stock.

NICE Price Performance

NICE stock traded up $1.44 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $140.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,383,617 shares, compared to its average volume of 686,222. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $166.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $172.51. NICE has a 12 month low of $137.19 and a 12 month high of $270.73. The stock has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.06.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.96 by ($0.71). The company had revenue of $721.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $718.47 million. NICE had a net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 16.17%. On average, equities research analysts expect that NICE will post 9.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NICE Company Profile

NICE Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud platforms for AI-driven digital business solutions worldwide. It offers CXone, a cloud native open platform; Enlighten, an AI engine for the customer engagement market; and smart self service enable organizations to address consumers' needs; and journey orchestration solutions that empower organizations to connect and route customers to deal with the customer's request, and connects them using real time AI-based routing.