PDD (NASDAQ:PDD) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume on Analyst Upgrade

PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PDD) shares saw unusually-high trading volume on Thursday after Benchmark raised their price target on the stock from $220.00 to $230.00. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the stock. Approximately 8,174,820 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 6% from the previous session’s volume of 8,730,380 shares.The stock last traded at $155.20 and had previously closed at $147.09.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of PDD from $195.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of PDD from $180.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of PDD from $191.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of PDD from $164.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of PDD from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, PDD has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.08.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PDD

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PDD. SC US Ttgp LTD. increased its stake in PDD by 1,414.4% in the third quarter. SC US Ttgp LTD. now owns 48,233,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,730,242,000 after acquiring an additional 45,048,300 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in PDD during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,075,172,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in PDD by 38.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,101,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,363,645,000 after buying an additional 6,637,418 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in PDD by 15,755.1% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,087,255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $591,393,000 after buying an additional 5,055,169 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its position in PDD by 14.4% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 35,668,170 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,497,977,000 after buying an additional 4,501,126 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 29.07% of the company’s stock.

PDD Trading Up 6.3 %

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $127.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $130.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $215.05 billion, a PE ratio of 27.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 0.67.

PDD (NASDAQ:PDD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The company reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.81. PDD had a net margin of 24.23% and a return on equity of 39.10%. The business had revenue of $12.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.80 billion. Equities analysts expect that PDD Holdings Inc. will post 7.85 earnings per share for the current year.

PDD Company Profile

PDD Holdings Inc, a multinational commerce group, owns and operates a portfolio of businesses. It operates Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform that offers products in various categories, including agricultural produce, apparel, shoes, bags, mother and childcare products, food and beverage, electronic appliances, furniture and household goods, cosmetics and other personal care, sports and fitness items and auto accessories; and Temu, an online marketplace.