Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) Trading Up 2.3% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Symbotic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYM) shot up 2.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $51.69 and last traded at $51.01. 894,352 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 1,899,661 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.88.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SYM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Northland Securities set a $73.00 target price on Symbotic in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Symbotic from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Symbotic from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Symbotic in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Symbotic from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.57.

Symbotic Trading Down 2.3%

The stock has a market capitalization of $29.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -494.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 2.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $58.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.67.

Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.06). Symbotic had a negative net margin of 0.45% and a negative return on equity of 1.88%. The company had revenue of $629.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $622.58 million. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.03) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Symbotic Inc. will post 0.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Rollin L. Ford sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.51, for a total value of $3,450,600.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Todd Krasnow sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.70, for a total value of $95,400.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 192,533 shares of company stock valued at $11,424,175. 8.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Symbotic

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barton Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Symbotic in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,640,000. Grove Street Fiduciary LLC lifted its holdings in Symbotic by 314.4% in the third quarter. Grove Street Fiduciary LLC now owns 35,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,886,000 after acquiring an additional 26,555 shares during the last quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Symbotic in the third quarter worth approximately $1,919,000. Prospera Financial Services Inc purchased a new position in shares of Symbotic during the 2nd quarter worth $861,000. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Symbotic by 32.4% during the third quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 589,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,795,000 after acquiring an additional 144,389 shares during the last quarter.

About Symbotic

Symbotic Inc (NASDAQ: SYM) is a provider of advanced warehouse automation and robotics systems designed to improve throughput, space utilization and labor productivity in distribution centers and fulfillment operations. The company develops integrated hardware and software solutions that automate the storage, retrieval, sorting and palletizing of goods, positioning itself as a systems integrator for material handling challenges faced by large-scale retailers, wholesalers and third-party logistics providers.

Products and services typically include autonomous robotic vehicles and shuttle systems, automated storage-and-retrieval equipment, robotic picking and palletizing cells, conveyors and sortation, together with control and management software that coordinates fleet operations and inventory flow.