BOX (NYSE:BOX) Downgraded to Buy Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of BOX (NYSE:BOX) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on BOX. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of BOX in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective 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. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of BOX in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of BOX in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned 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 an average target price of $35.57.

BOX Trading Down 3.3%

NYSE:BOX opened at $23.03 on Friday. BOX has a 12 month low of $21.61 and a 12 month high of $38.80. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $24.47 and its 200 day moving average is $28.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a PE ratio of 39.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.80.

BOX (NYSE:BOX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $305.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $305.64 million. BOX had a negative return on equity of 23.61% and a net margin of 9.80%.BOX’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that BOX will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current year.

BOX declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 19th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software maker to purchase up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at BOX

In related news, COO Olivia Nottebohm sold 4,612 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.78, for a total transaction of $118,897.36. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 465,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,993,345.82. This represents a 0.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.75, for a total transaction of $420,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1,311,195 shares in the company, valued at $32,452,076.25. This represents a 1.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 75,224 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,474. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BOX

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BOX. First Horizon Corp raised its holdings in shares of BOX by 148.1% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 831 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 496 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BOX during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BOX during the first quarter worth about $31,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in shares of BOX in the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in BOX in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.74% of the company’s stock.

About BOX

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.