William Blair Investment Management LLC Raises Stake in Snowflake Inc. $SNOW

Key Points

• William Blair Investment Management boosted its Snowflake stake by 159.9% in the fourth quarter, buying 828,789 more shares and bringing its total holding to 1.35 million shares worth about $295.5 million.
• Snowflake posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with earnings of $0.32 per share and revenue of $1.28 billion, both ahead of analyst estimates and up 30.1% year over year.
• Despite positive analyst sentiment and a consensus Moderate Buy rating, insiders have sold shares recently, including a large sale by Director Frank Slootman, which may pressure investor sentiment.

William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW - Free Report) by 159.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,346,998 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 828,789 shares during the quarter. Snowflake makes up about 0.8% of William Blair Investment Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned about 0.39% of Snowflake worth $295,477,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Snowflake by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,095,687 shares of the company's stock worth $6,601,790,000 after buying an additional 1,448,094 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Snowflake by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,603,302 shares of the company's stock worth $2,545,300,000 after buying an additional 2,519,413 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Snowflake by 233.3% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,104,925 shares of the company's stock worth $474,766,000 after buying an additional 1,473,354 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Snowflake by 2.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,089,150 shares of the company's stock worth $471,208,000 after buying an additional 55,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coatue Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Snowflake in the third quarter worth $441,277,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.10% of the company's stock.

Snowflake Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of SNOW opened at $171.98 on Friday. The company's fifty day moving average is $153.88 and its 200 day moving average is $193.16. Snowflake Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $118.30 and a fifty-two week high of $280.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.45 billion, a PE ratio of -43.54 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. Snowflake had a negative net margin of 28.43% and a negative return on equity of 50.61%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.30 earnings per share. Snowflake's quarterly revenue was up 30.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Snowflake Inc. will post -2.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Vivek Raghunathan sold 3,876 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.80, for a total value of $592,252.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 273,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,763,754.40. The trade was a 1.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Frank Slootman sold 144,650 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.45, for a total transaction of $25,378,842.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 38,046 shares in the company, valued at $6,675,170.70. This trade represents a 79.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 428,963 shares of company stock valued at $71,996,216 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 6.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SNOW shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Snowflake from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Snowflake from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. BTIG Research lowered their target price on shares of Snowflake from $312.00 to $235.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Zacks Research raised shares of Snowflake from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Snowflake from $285.00 to $220.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $242.19.

Key Stories Impacting Snowflake

Here are the key news stories impacting Snowflake this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on Snowflake to $205 and reiterated a Buy rating, citing sustained enterprise demand, early traction in AI-driven workflow tools, and better execution confidence. Snowflake seen delivering strong quarter as Bank of America lifts price target
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens JMP reaffirmed its Market Outperform rating and set a much higher $325 target, reflecting confidence that Snowflake’s AI platform growth can keep accelerating. Benzinga report on Citizens JMP rating
• Positive Sentiment: Snowflake is gaining investor attention ahead of its next earnings report, with traders looking for a catalyst if results or guidance beat expectations. Dear Snowflake stock fans, mark your calendars for May 27
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage says Snowflake is expanding its AI ecosystem through partnerships and product integrations, which could support longer-term enterprise adoption and revenue growth. Snowflake Expands AI Ecosystem As Partnerships Deepen Everyday Enterprise Workflows
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and media have highlighted Snowflake’s strong customer growth and AI partnerships, but also pointed to heavier competition from Alphabet and Amazon. Snowflake Rides on Growing Customer Base: More Upside Ahead?
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary suggests the stock’s recent weakness was more of a pause after a strong run than a sign of a new company-specific problem. Why Snowflake Stock Is Falling On Wednesday?
• Negative Sentiment: Director Frank Slootman disclosed a large share sale, which can weigh on sentiment even though it was made under a pre-arranged trading plan. SEC Form 4 filing

Snowflake Company Profile

Snowflake Inc is a cloud-native data platform company that provides a suite of services for storing, processing and analyzing large volumes of data. Its core offering, often described as the Snowflake Data Cloud, combines data warehousing, data lake and data sharing capabilities in a single managed service delivered across major public cloud providers. The platform is designed to support analytics, data engineering, data science and application workloads with a focus on scalability, concurrency and simplified administration.

Key products and capabilities include a multi-cluster, shared-data architecture that separates compute from storage; continuous data ingestion and streaming; support for structured and semi-structured data formats; tools for data governance, security and compliance; and developer frameworks for building data applications.

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