DA Davidson Reaffirms Buy Rating for BOX (NYSE:BOX)

Key Points

• DA Davidson reaffirmed its Buy rating on BOX and kept a $45 price target, implying roughly 84% upside from the current share price.
• BOX beat fiscal Q1 earnings and revenue estimates, reporting EPS of $0.37 on revenue of $305.94 million, and also raised guidance for Q2 and FY2027.
• The company has a newly announced $500 million share repurchase program, while the stock was trading lower on the day despite the positive earnings update.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by equities research analysts at DA Davidson in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $45.00 price objective on the software maker's stock. DA Davidson's price objective points to a potential upside of 84.46% from the company's current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on BOX from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered BOX from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded BOX from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. William Blair reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of BOX in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of BOX in a research note on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.71.

BOX Trading Down 4.8%

Shares of NYSE BOX traded down $1.22 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $24.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,851,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,543,295. The business's 50 day moving average is $24.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.71. BOX has a 12-month low of $21.34 and a 12-month high of $38.80.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 26th. The software maker reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $305.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $304.39 million. BOX had a negative return on equity of 23.61% and a net margin of 9.80%.BOX's revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.30 EPS. BOX has set its Q2 2027 guidance at 0.390-0.390 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 1.560-1.560 EPS. On average, analysts predict that BOX will post 0.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BOX announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 14.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at BOX

In other BOX news, VP Eli Berkovitch sold 24,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.85, for a total transaction of $584,325.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 95,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,278,056.60. This represents a 20.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 23,720 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.96, for a total transaction of $592,051.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,381,049 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $34,470,983.04. This represents a 1.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 137,086 shares of company stock worth $3,345,852 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BOX

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Horizon Corp grew its position in BOX by 148.1% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 831 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 496 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BOX in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BOX during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in BOX in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of BOX by 1,778.1% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,202 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 1,138 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.74% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting BOX

Here are the key news stories impacting BOX this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Box beat Q1 profit and revenue estimates, showing steady execution and continued demand for its software platform. Earnings report and transcript
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised guidance, with Q2 EPS outlook at $0.39 versus $0.33 expected and FY2027 EPS guidance at $1.56 versus $1.33 expected, signaling management confidence in growth and margins. Box press release
• Positive Sentiment: Box previously announced a $500 million share repurchase program, which can support the stock by returning capital to shareholders and reducing share count. Benzinga preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts were already looking for a beat, so some of the upside may have been anticipated before the report.
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the beat, the stock may be facing profit-taking because the results were only modestly above estimates and the market is still weighing Box’s slower-growth, maturity profile.

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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