BOX (NYSE:BOX) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded BOX from a "buy" to a "strong-buy" in its latest research note.
• The company's board authorized a $500 million share buyback, representing up to 14.2% of outstanding shares.
• BOX beat expectations for the quarter with $0.49 EPS vs. $0.33 expected and reported revenue of $305.9 million, a 9.4% year‑over‑year increase.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report released on Saturday.

BOX has been the topic of several other reports. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of BOX in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on BOX from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of BOX in a research report on Friday, March 20th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on BOX from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. 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's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $35.57.

BOX Stock Performance

BOX opened at $24.29 on Friday. The business's fifty day moving average is $23.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.60. The company has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.16, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.71. BOX has a one year low of $21.34 and a one year high of $38.80.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The software maker reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $305.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $305.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. BOX's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that BOX will post 0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BOX declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 19th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software maker to purchase up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.75, for a total transaction of $420,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,311,195 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,452,076.25. This represents a 1.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Eli Berkovitch sold 24,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.85, for a total value of $584,325.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 95,516 shares in the company, valued at $2,278,056.60. This trade represents a 20.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 111,954 shares of company stock valued at $2,712,131 in the last three months. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BOX

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Horizon Corp lifted its position in BOX by 148.1% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 831 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 496 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BOX in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in shares of BOX in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BOX in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of BOX in the 3rd quarter worth about $35,000. 86.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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