BOX (NYSE:BOX) Cut to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen
by Michael Walen · The Markets DailyWall Street Zen downgraded shares of BOX (NYSE:BOX – Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report published on Saturday.
Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on BOX from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. UBS Group decreased their target price on BOX from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Citigroup lowered their target price on BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of BOX in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of BOX in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.57.
View Our Latest Stock Report on BOX
BOX Price Performance
BOX stock opened at $23.30 on Friday. BOX has a 12-month low of $21.61 and a 12-month high of $38.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.23 billion, a PE ratio of 39.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.80. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.72.
BOX (NYSE:BOX – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $305.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $305.64 million. BOX had a negative return on equity of 23.61% and a net margin of 9.80%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that BOX will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
BOX announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, March 19th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software maker to purchase up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.
Insider Activity
In other news, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 17,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.75, for a total value of $420,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 1,311,195 shares in the company, valued at $32,452,076.25. This represents a 1.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Aaron Levie sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $370,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,907,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $71,861,781.60. This trade represents a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 75,224 shares of company stock worth $1,953,474 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On BOX
A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BOX. XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in shares of BOX by 283.2% during the 4th quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 99,652 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,981,000 after acquiring an additional 73,645 shares in the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BOX by 76.2% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 681,785 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $20,392,000 after acquiring an additional 294,954 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank purchased a new stake in shares of BOX during the fourth quarter worth $60,000. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL boosted its position in BOX by 294.9% during the fourth quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 449,973 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,459,000 after purchasing an additional 336,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Numerai GP LLC grew its stake in BOX by 152.4% in the fourth quarter. Numerai GP LLC now owns 46,524 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,392,000 after purchasing an additional 28,091 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.74% of the company’s stock.
BOX Company Profile
Box, Inc is a leading provider of cloud content management and file sharing solutions designed to support enterprises in securely managing, accessing and collaborating on digital content from anywhere. The company offers a unified platform that enables organizations to store, share and automate workflows across various departments, enhancing productivity and ensuring governance over sensitive information. Box’s services are tailored to meet the needs of industries such as healthcare, financial services, government and media, where compliance and data security are paramount.
The core offerings of Box include its Content Cloud platform, which provides content collaboration, workflow automation, data classification and secure file sharing.