BOX (NYSE:BOX) Stock Price Up 3.7% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX) were up 3.7% on Friday . The company traded as high as $24.72 and last traded at $24.7460. Approximately 1,701,358 shares changed hands 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

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lowered their target price on BOX from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of BOX in a report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Wall Street Zen raised BOX from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of BOX from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.57.

BOX Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $24.85 and its 200 day moving average is $29.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.77, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.80.

BOX (NYSE:BOX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.16. The business 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Box, Inc. will post 0.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BOX announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 19th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software maker to reacquire up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other BOX news, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 17,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.57, for a total transaction of $502,690.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1,328,195 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,274,726.15. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Olivia Nottebohm sold 4,612 shares of BOX stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.78, for a total transaction of $118,897.36. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 465,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,993,345.82. This trade represents a 0.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 79,836 shares of company stock valued at $2,091,096 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BOX

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CWM LLC grew its holdings in BOX by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BOX by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 27,285 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $816,000 after buying an additional 387 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of BOX by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,093 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of BOX by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 27,634 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $827,000 after acquiring an additional 449 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of BOX by 1.2% in the third quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 41,180 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,329,000 after acquiring an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. 86.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.