Traders Buy Large Volume of Kyndryl Put Options (NYSE:KD)

Kyndryl Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:KD) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 5,399 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 174% compared to the average daily volume of 1,968 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kyndryl news, SVP Vineet Khurana sold 6,641 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.69, for a total transaction of $177,248.29. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 59,708 shares in the company, valued at $1,593,606.52. The trade was a 10.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kyndryl

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Kyndryl by 386.2% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,187,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,113,000 after purchasing an additional 3,326,025 shares in the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc CT purchased a new position in Kyndryl in the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,113,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Kyndryl by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,186,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $846,446,000 after buying an additional 1,619,048 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT increased its stake in Kyndryl by 46.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT now owns 2,974,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,995,000 after buying an additional 939,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Kyndryl during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,539,000. 71.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Kyndryl

Here are the key news stories impacting Kyndryl this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Kyndryl announced a new product capability—policy‑as‑code governance for agentic AI workflows—that aims to help regulated customers deploy mission‑critical AI agents with automated compliance and auditability; this is a constructive product/market signal for the services pipeline. Kyndryl Unveils Agentic AI Workflow Governance
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusual options activity: traders bought ~5,399 put contracts today (about a 174% increase vs. average), indicating elevated hedging/speculation and higher near‑term volatility for the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Oppenheimer reaffirmed its Market Perform rating (limited near‑term catalyst), while some other firms have moved more bearish—mixed analyst posture contributes to uncertain sentiment. Oppenheimer Reaffirms “Market Perform” Rating
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple securities law firms have opened investigations into Kyndryl, alleging potential misleading statements tied to accounting and disclosures; these inquiries raise the probability of costly litigation and further reputational damage. Robbins Geller Investigation Notice
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and governance red flags: Kyndryl delayed filing its quarterly report, disclosed an internal accounting/control review and reported the abrupt departures of its CFO and GC; those developments have triggered SEC document requests and accelerated investor scrutiny. Hagens Berman: Late Filing, CFO & GC Departures
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst moves: Guggenheim and JPMorgan have turned more cautious on KD, including downgrades and underweight ratings, which can pressure demand for the stock while uncertainty persists. Guggenheim Downgrades Kyndryl JPMorgan Lowers Rating
• Negative Sentiment: Fundamentals and guidance concerns: recent earnings missed expectations, guidance was cut and the company’s market cap compressed sharply after the disclosure events—investors should treat current rallies as tentative until filings, audit outcomes and management stability are resolved. Looking At Kyndryl After A 50%+ Drop

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KD has been the topic of several research reports. Scotiabank started coverage on Kyndryl in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Kyndryl from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Susquehanna set a $35.00 target price on Kyndryl in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Kyndryl from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Kyndryl from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $16.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kyndryl has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.80.

Kyndryl Stock Up 7.2%

NYSE KD traded up $0.81 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $11.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,765,476 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,855,975. Kyndryl has a fifty-two week low of $10.10 and a fifty-two week high of $44.20. The company has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a PE ratio of 11.30 and a beta of 1.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.09.

Kyndryl (NYSE:KD) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 9th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $3.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.89 billion. Kyndryl had a return on equity of 25.77% and a net margin of 1.65%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Kyndryl will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kyndryl Company Profile

Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) is a global managed infrastructure services provider formed in November 2021 through the spin-off of IBM’s Managed Infrastructure Services business. The company designs, builds, manages and modernizes critical information technology systems for enterprises worldwide. Kyndryl’s core offerings include cloud migration and management, network and edge computing solutions, digital workplace services and IT resiliency and security capabilities.

With a workforce of approximately 90,000 professionals and operations in more than 60 countries, Kyndryl serves clients across a broad range of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing and retail.