BOX (NYSE:BOX) Given Buy Rating at DA Davidson

Key Points

• DA Davidson reiterated a "buy" rating on BOX with a $45 price target, implying about an 83.85% upside from the current share price.
• BOX beat quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $0.49 versus the $0.33 consensus and revenue of $305.88 million, up 9.4% year-over-year.
• The board authorized a $500 million stock repurchase program, allowing the company to buy back up to 14.2% of outstanding shares.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by analysts at DA Davidson in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $45.00 target price on the software maker's stock. DA Davidson's price objective points to a potential upside of 83.85% from the company's current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of BOX from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on BOX from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BOX from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of BOX in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $35.57.

BOX Stock Performance

Shares of BOX traded up $0.62 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $24.48. 820,325 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,695,410. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.51 billion, a PE ratio of 41.42, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.21. BOX has a 52 week low of $21.61 and a 52 week high of $38.80.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.16. BOX had a net margin of 9.80% and a negative return on equity of 23.61%. The firm had revenue of $305.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $305.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. The company's revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that BOX will post 0.27 EPS for the current year.

BOX announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 19th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software maker to repurchase up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BOX 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 transaction 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 $71,861,781.60. The trade was a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 17,000 shares of BOX stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $420,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,294,195 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,992,500.40. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 79,836 shares of company stock worth $2,091,096. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of BOX

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in BOX by 2.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,487,018 shares of the software maker's stock worth $596,576,000 after purchasing an additional 497,658 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in BOX by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,511,258 shares of the software maker's stock worth $134,932,000 after acquiring an additional 604,946 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of BOX by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,346,923 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $114,379,000 after purchasing an additional 32,884 shares in the last quarter. RGM Capital LLC boosted its position in BOX by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. RGM Capital LLC now owns 3,330,168 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $99,605,000 after acquiring an additional 251,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of BOX by 2.9% during the third quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 3,316,783 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $107,033,000 after purchasing an additional 94,289 shares in the last quarter. 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.

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