iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ) Trading 9% Higher – Still a Buy?

iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IQ)’s share price shot up 9% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $2.51 and last traded at $2.50. 7,900,591 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 23,362,770 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.29.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on IQ. HSBC raised iQIYI from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $2.15 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. OTR Global reissued a “negative” rating on shares of iQIYI in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of iQIYI in a report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on iQIYI from $2.50 to $1.80 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on iQIYI from $3.00 to $2.80 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $2.91.

iQIYI Stock Down 0.4 %

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $2.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.60, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.03.

iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.02. iQIYI had a return on equity of 13.26% and a net margin of 4.69%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.07 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that iQIYI, Inc. will post 0.14 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On iQIYI

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IQ. Krane Funds Advisors LLC grew its holdings in iQIYI by 82.1% in the fourth quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 21,763,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,745,000 after purchasing an additional 9,809,187 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in iQIYI by 41.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,011,033 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,135,000 after acquiring an additional 3,235,223 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in iQIYI during the fourth quarter worth about $6,297,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in iQIYI during the fourth quarter worth about $3,914,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of iQIYI by 78.2% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,745,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,529,000 after acquiring an additional 1,643,387 shares during the period. 52.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About iQIYI

iQIYI, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides online entertainment video services in the People's Republic of China. It offers various products and services, including online video, online games, online literature, animations, and other products. The company operates a platform that provides a collection of internet video content, such as professionally produced content licensed from professional content providers and self-produced content.