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

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. UBS Group cut their price target on BOX from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on BOX from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Citigroup decreased their target price on BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. William Blair reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of BOX in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of BOX in a report on Friday, March 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $35.57.

BOX Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE:BOX opened at $25.73 on Friday. BOX has a 1 year low of $21.34 and a 1 year high of $38.80. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.61, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $24.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.13.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.16. BOX had a negative return on equity of 23.61% and a net margin of 9.80%.The firm had revenue of $305.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $305.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that BOX will post 0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

BOX announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 19th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software maker to purchase up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Aaron Levie sold 15,000 shares of BOX stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 10,280 shares of BOX stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.09, for a total transaction of $227,085.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,314,971 shares in the company, valued at $29,047,709.39. This trade represents a 0.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 117,896 shares of company stock valued at $2,860,681 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of BOX

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CWM LLC boosted its position in BOX by 25.6% in the third 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 boosted its position in BOX by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 27,285 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $816,000 after buying an additional 387 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

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