BOX (NYSE:BOX) Earns Market Perform Rating from William Blair

Key Points

• William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on BOX, and the Street consensus remains a Hold with a $35.57 average price target (analysts: 4 Buy, 5 Hold, 1 Sell).
• BOX beat EPS expectations ($0.49 vs. $0.33) and reported revenue of $305.9M (up 9.4% year-over-year), and its board approved a $500 million share repurchase program (about 14.2% of outstanding shares).

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market perform" rating reissued by research analysts at William Blair in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased 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 note on Thursday, March 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of BOX in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BOX from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Citigroup decreased their price target on BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of BOX in a research report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $35.57.

BOX Stock Performance

NYSE:BOX opened at $24.65 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a PE ratio of 41.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.80. BOX has a 52-week low of $21.61 and a 52-week high of $38.80.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $305.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that BOX will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BOX declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, March 19th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software maker to buy up to 14.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BOX news, COO Olivia Nottebohm sold 4,612 shares of BOX stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.78, for a total value of $118,897.36. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 465,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,993,345.82. The trade was a 0.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Aaron Levie sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $370,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,907,030 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,861,781.60. The trade was a 0.51% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 79,836 shares of company stock worth $2,091,096. 3.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BOX

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BOX. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in BOX by 823,134.5% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 3,054,200 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $91,351,000 after buying an additional 3,053,829 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of BOX during the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,814,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings in shares of BOX by 240.6% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,210,237 shares of the software maker's stock worth $41,354,000 after acquiring an additional 854,953 shares in the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of BOX during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $22,626,000. Finally, Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new position in shares of BOX in the third quarter valued at $20,851,000. 86.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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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