BOX (NYSE:BOX) Downgraded by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of BOX (NYSE:BOX) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $32.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $35.00.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group upped their target price on BOX from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. StockNews.com upgraded BOX from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an underperform rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of BOX in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. TheStreet upgraded shares of BOX from a c rating to a b rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a market outperform rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of BOX in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BOX has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $30.89.

BOX Stock Performance

BOX opened at $25.27 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $27.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.50. BOX has a 52-week low of $23.29 and a 52-week high of $31.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.65 billion, a PE ratio of 37.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.92 and a beta of 0.85.

BOX (NYSE:BOX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 5th. The software maker reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.07. BOX had a net margin of 12.43% and a negative return on equity of 9.46%. The business had revenue of $262.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $262.92 million. Research analysts forecast that BOX will post 0.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.26, for a total value of $380,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,395,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,838,240.52. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Dana L. Evan sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.47, for a total transaction of $313,170.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 116,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,317,751.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.26, for a total transaction of $380,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,395,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,838,240.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,660 shares of company stock worth $3,774,134 over the last 90 days. 4.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BOX

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Comerica Bank raised its stake in BOX by 964.7% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 85,081 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,409,000 after buying an additional 77,090 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new stake in BOX during the first quarter valued at $391,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in BOX by 19.4% during the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,374,580 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $67,248,000 after acquiring an additional 386,149 shares during the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in BOX by 799.2% in the first quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP now owns 98,900 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,801,000 after acquiring an additional 87,901 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC boosted its position in BOX by 10.5% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 7,340,474 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $207,882,000 after purchasing an additional 699,882 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.74% of the company’s stock.

About BOX

Box, Inc provides a cloud content management platform that enables organizations of various sizes to manage and share their content from anywhere on any device. The company's Software-as-a-Service platform enables users to work with their content as they need from secure external collaboration and sharing, workspaces and portals, e-signature processes, and content workflows improving employee productivity and accelerating business processes.