Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Purchases 3,053,829 Shares of Box, Inc. $BOX

Key Points

• Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. dramatically increased its BOX stake in Q4, buying 3,053,829 shares and ending with about 3.05 million shares valued at roughly $91.35 million, or 2.13% of the company.
• BOX reported a strong quarter, with EPS of $0.49 beating estimates of $0.33 and revenue of $305.88 million edging above forecasts, while revenue rose 9.4% year over year.
• The company also announced a $500 million stock buyback program, even as insiders sold shares and analysts remained mixed, with the stock carrying a consensus Hold rating and an average target price of $35.57.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX - Free Report) by 823,134.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,054,200 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 3,053,829 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. owned approximately 2.13% of BOX worth $91,351,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Horizon Corp boosted its holdings in BOX by 148.1% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 831 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 496 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BOX in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BOX in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in shares of BOX in the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of BOX by 1,778.1% in the third 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 during the period. 86.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at BOX

In related news, VP Eli Berkovitch sold 24,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.85, for a total value of $584,325.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 95,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,278,056.60. This represents a 20.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Olivia Nottebohm sold 12,470 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.17, for a total transaction of $313,869.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 558,739 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,063,460.63. This trade represents a 2.18% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 137,086 shares of company stock valued at $3,345,852. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

BOX Stock Up 2.6%

NYSE:BOX opened at $24.68 on Friday. Box, Inc. has a 12-month low of $21.34 and a 12-month high of $38.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.42 billion, a PE ratio of 41.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.71. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $24.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.80.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) last posted 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 in the prior year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Box, Inc. will post 0.34 EPS for the current year.

BOX declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 19th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software maker to buy up to 14.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BOX shares. Weiss Ratings cut shares of BOX from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of 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 cut shares of BOX from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of BOX from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of BOX from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $35.57.

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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