Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Key Points

• Wells Fargo downgrade to equal weight triggered a pre-market gap down in Criteo, which had closed at $20.12, opened at $17.94 and was last trading around $16.63 on elevated early volume.
• Analysts have trimmed price targets (recent cuts to $26–$30 from several firms, with Sanford Bernstein at $43), leaving a consensus rating of Hold and an average target of $30.72; the stock trades with a market cap of about $788M and a P/E of 5.97.
• Insider buying: director Der Kooi Frederik Van purchased 5,000 shares at $17.81 (a 23.15% increase in his holding), while institutional investors own roughly 94% of the company.

Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO - Get Free Report) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Wells Fargo & Company downgraded the stock from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating. The stock had previously closed at $20.12, but opened at $17.94. Criteo shares last traded at $16.6280, with a volume of 170,338 shares changing hands.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CRTO. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Criteo from $34.00 to $26.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Benchmark reduced their price objective on Criteo from $38.00 to $30.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Criteo from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 13th. DA Davidson set a $28.50 price objective on Criteo in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $43.00 price objective on Criteo in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $30.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Criteo news, Director Der Kooi Frederik Van bought 5,000 shares of Criteo stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were bought at an average price of $17.81 per share, for a total transaction of $89,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 26,600 shares of the company's stock, valued at $473,746. This trade represents a 23.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Criteo

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Criteo in the second quarter valued at $30,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 1,376.7% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,270 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 1,184 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 185.8% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,446 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 940 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 125.2% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,763 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 980 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 142.3% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,081 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 1,222 shares in the last quarter. 94.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Criteo Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $18.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $788.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.97 and a beta of 0.34.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 31st. The information services provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter. Criteo had a return on equity of 17.15% and a net margin of 7.52%.The firm had revenue of $424.64 million during the quarter. As a group, research analysts expect that Criteo S.A. will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Criteo Company Profile

Criteo is a global technology company specializing in digital performance advertising and commerce media solutions. The company provides a range of AI-driven ad products designed to help brands, retailers, and agencies deliver personalized promotional messages to consumers across web, mobile, and connected TV environments. By leveraging large-scale data analytics and machine learning algorithms, Criteo's platform optimizes the timing, placement, and creative of ads to drive engagement and conversions.

At the core of Criteo's offering is its dynamic retargeting solution, which enables advertisers to automatically generate and display personalized product recommendations based on user behavior.

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