Essex Investment Management Co. LLC Purchases New Position in Penguin Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENG)

Key Points

• Essex Investment Management Co. LLC has acquired 163,573 shares of Penguin Solutions, valued at approximately $2,841,000, representing about 0.30% ownership following their Q1 filing with the SEC.
• Shares of NASDAQ:PENG opened at $25.07, and the company has a market cap of $1.31 billion and a recent earnings report indicated an EPS of $0.47, exceeding consensus estimates.
• Various analysts have recently upgraded their price targets for Penguin Solutions, with Loop Capital and Needham & Company LLC setting target prices of $35.00 and $30.00, respectively, indicating a general positive outlook.

Essex Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new position in Penguin Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENG - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 163,573 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,841,000. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC owned 0.30% of Penguin Solutions at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Penguin Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. IFP Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Penguin Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,000. CWM LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Penguin Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Penguin Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $167,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Penguin Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $174,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on PENG shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Penguin Solutions from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Penguin Solutions from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Penguin Solutions in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Penguin Solutions from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Penguin Solutions from $22.50 to $25.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Penguin Solutions currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.13.

Penguin Solutions Trading Down 3.0%

Shares of Penguin Solutions stock traded down $0.72 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $22.86. 523,224 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 881,096. Penguin Solutions, Inc. has a 52-week low of $14.20 and a 52-week high of $25.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -81.68 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a fifty day moving average of $21.13 and a 200-day moving average of $19.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08.

Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 8th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.17. Penguin Solutions had a positive return on equity of 13.27% and a negative net margin of 0.68%. The company had revenue of $324,251 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $330.82 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Penguin Solutions, Inc. will post 1.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jack A. Pacheco sold 63,447 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.83, for a total transaction of $1,575,389.01. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 227,231 shares in the company, valued at $5,642,145.73. This represents a 21.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Penny Herscher sold 2,046 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.42, for a total value of $52,009.32. Following the sale, the director owned 18,222 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $463,203.24. The trade was a 10.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 66,175 shares of company stock valued at $1,644,448. Insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

Penguin Solutions Company Profile

Penguin Solutions, Inc engages in the designing and development of enterprise solutions worldwide. It operates through three segments: Advanced Computing, Integrated Memory, and Optimized LED. It offers dynamic random access memory modules, solid-state and flash storage, and other advanced integrated memory solutions for networking and telecom, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications; and supply chain services, including procurement, logistics, inventory management, temporary warehousing, programming, kitting, and packaging services.