NextNav (NASDAQ:NN) Stock Sees Heavy Call Option Buying

NextNav Inc. (NASDAQ:NN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors purchased 63,504 call options on the company. This is an increase of 176% compared to the typical daily volume of 23,045 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NN. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of NextNav in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Odeon Capital Group started coverage on shares of NextNav in a report on Monday, July 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $22.00 price objective for the company. Clear Str upgraded shares of NextNav to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Zacks Research cut shares of NextNav from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NextNav from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NextNav has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Timothy Gray sold 11,099 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.64, for a total transaction of $162,489.36. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 120,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,766,857.68. This trade represents a 8.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Mariam Sorond sold 69,853 shares of NextNav stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.30, for a total value of $1,068,750.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,171,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,928,417.60. The trade was a 5.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 87,667 shares of company stock valued at $1,331,153 over the last ninety days. 7.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NextNav

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. General American Investors Co. Inc. bought a new position in NextNav in the third quarter worth approximately $10,063,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NextNav in the 3rd quarter worth $5,319,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of NextNav by 14.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,676,573 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,489,000 after purchasing an additional 333,318 shares in the last quarter. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of NextNav in the 2nd quarter worth $4,012,000. Finally, Leelyn Smith LLC raised its holdings in NextNav by 1,047.2% in the 3rd quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 233,555 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,359,000 after purchasing an additional 213,197 shares during the period. 79.16% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NextNav Stock Up 3.1%

NASDAQ:NN traded up $0.26 on Thursday, hitting $8.71. The stock had a trading volume of 2,459,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,434,670. The stock has a market cap of $1.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.79 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.14. NextNav has a 52-week low of $7.60 and a 52-week high of $24.42.

NextNav (NASDAQ:NN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.08. NextNav had a negative net margin of 2,451.65% and a negative return on equity of 129.25%. The firm had revenue of $1.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.99 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NextNav will post -0.46 EPS for the current year.

About NextNav

NextNav, Inc. develops positioning, navigation and timing technologies designed to complement and help provide alternatives to satellite-based GPS. Its services support location-aware applications in environments where GPS signals may be limited, including indoors and in urban areas. The company’s offerings include Pinnacle, a service that provides vertical location information, such as a device’s floor or height within a building, and TerraPoiNT, a terrestrial network designed to deliver positioning and timing signals.