Aurora Innovation Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:AUR)

Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 17,100 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 137% compared to the typical volume of 7,209 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aurora Innovation

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AUR. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 35.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 71,298,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $384,299,000 after purchasing an additional 18,820,542 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,567,323 shares of the company’s stock valued at $616,579,000 after acquiring an additional 17,818,179 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 274,809,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,055,269,000 after acquiring an additional 16,933,373 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 6,824.0% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 9,645,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,037,000 after acquiring an additional 9,505,736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SC US Ttgp LTD. purchased a new stake in shares of Aurora Innovation in the 4th quarter valued at $33,830,000. Institutional investors own 44.71% of the company’s stock.

Aurora Innovation Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AUR traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $5.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,494,636 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,188,939. Aurora Innovation has a 52 week low of $3.60 and a 52 week high of $8.25. The company has a market capitalization of $10.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.61 and a beta of 2.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $4.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.48.

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.47 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Aurora Innovation will post -0.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on AUR. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Aurora Innovation from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Aurora Innovation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Aurora Innovation from $5.50 to $4.70 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.54.

Aurora Innovation Company Profile

Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.

The company’s core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.