Zacks Research Upgrades KE (NYSE:BEKE) to “Strong-Buy”

KE (NYSE:BEKE) was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on BEKE. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of KE in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wall Street Zen cut KE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on KE from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. CLSA began coverage on KE in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $23.80 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of KE from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $23.64.

KE Stock Performance

NYSE BEKE opened at $17.73 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.56. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 3.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. KE has a 12-month low of $13.81 and a 12-month high of $20.98. The firm has a market cap of $19.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.07, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of -0.29.

KE (NYSE:BEKE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 21st. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.59 billion. KE had a return on equity of 7.62% and a net margin of 5.38%. On average, equities analysts forecast that KE will post 0.88 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of KE

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BEKE. Basecamp Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of KE by 9.1% in the first quarter. Basecamp Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $126,000 after purchasing an additional 704 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in KE by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,820 shares of the company’s stock valued at $192,000 after purchasing an additional 809 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in KE by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 37,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in KE by 37.6% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,000 after buying an additional 1,543 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in KE by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 18,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 1,671 shares during the period. 39.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

KE Company Profile

KE Holdings Inc (NYSE: BEKE) is a technology-driven real estate services company that operates an integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and related services in mainland China. The company provides consumer-facing property listing marketplaces alongside a broad network of offline brokerage offices and agents, aiming to facilitate sales, rentals and new-home transactions for individual and institutional clients.

The company’s offerings span property listings for new and resale homes, rental listings, brokerage representation and transaction facilitation.