BOX (NYSE:BOX) Stock Price Up 3.7% – What’s Next?

Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX) was up 3.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $24.72 and last traded at $24.7460. Approximately 1,701,358 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 37% from the average daily volume of 2,710,531 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.86.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on BOX. Citigroup reduced their price target on BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. UBS Group cut their target price on BOX from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of BOX in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BOX from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of BOX from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BOX currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.57.

BOX Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.80. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $24.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.21.

BOX (NYSE:BOX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $305.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $305.64 million. BOX had a net margin of 9.80% and a negative return on equity of 23.61%. BOX’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Box, Inc. will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BOX announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 19th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software maker to purchase up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically 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 business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $420,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,294,195 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,992,500.40. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Aaron Levie sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total value of $370,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,907,030 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,861,781.60. The trade was a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 79,836 shares of company stock valued at $2,091,096 over the last ninety days. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BOX. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of BOX by 15.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 560,329 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,146,000 after buying an additional 73,896 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of BOX by 84.3% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 39,251 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,341,000 after buying an additional 17,950 shares during the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC grew its holdings in BOX by 38.1% during the second quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 955,286 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,637,000 after acquiring an additional 263,619 shares during the period. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new position in BOX during the third quarter valued at approximately $20,851,000. Finally, Trek Financial LLC purchased a new position in BOX during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,276,000. 86.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.