Investors Buy Large Volume of Warby Parker Call Options (NYSE:WRBY)

Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 21,529 call options on the company. This is an increase of 329% compared to the typical volume of 5,022 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WRBY. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Warby Parker in a report on Friday, August 7th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Warby Parker in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their target price on Warby Parker from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Warby Parker in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Warby Parker in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $30.18.

Warby Parker Stock Up 3.7%

WRBY stock traded up $0.85 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $24.14. 746,761 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,027,559. Warby Parker has a twelve month low of $14.96 and a twelve month high of $31.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 345.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.48 and a beta of 1.91. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.14.

Warby Parker (NYSE:WRBY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $235.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $237.98 million. Warby Parker had a return on equity of 3.36% and a net margin of 0.85%.Warby Parker’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.01) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Warby Parker will post 0.14 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Warby Parker

In other Warby Parker news, CEO Neil Blumenthal sold 9,200 shares of Warby Parker stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.99, for a total transaction of $275,908.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 31,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $933,048.88. The trade was a 22.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Teresa Briggs sold 5,000 shares of Warby Parker stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.94, for a total value of $129,700.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 48,883 shares in the company, valued at $1,268,025.02. The trade was a 9.28% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 278,167 shares of company stock worth $8,206,480 in the last three months. 16.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Warby Parker by 105.7% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Warby Parker by 41.4% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 494 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Warby Parker by 110.7% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 965 shares during the last quarter. Essential Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Warby Parker by 44.2% in the first quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 2,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Warby Parker by 5,795.3% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,535 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 2,492 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.24% of the company’s stock.

About Warby Parker

Warby Parker, Inc (NYSE: WRBY) is a U.S.-based eyewear company that designs, manufactures and sells prescription glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses through a direct-to-consumer model. Since its founding, the company has combined online and brick-and-mortar channels to streamline the customer experience, offering features such as virtual try-on technology and a home try-on program that allows consumers to sample frames before purchase.

Established in 2010 by Wharton graduates Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andrew Hunt and Jeffrey Raider, Warby Parker set out to disrupt the traditional optical market by controlling the entire supply chain—from frame design and lens production to warehousing and distribution.