HubSpot, Inc. (NYSE:HUBS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts: HubSpot has a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from 28 firms (25 buys, 2 holds, 1 sell) with an average 12‑month price target of $399.89, though several firms have recently trimmed their price targets.
• Insider and institutional activity: insiders have sold 26,483 shares worth roughly $6.59M in the past 90 days (including Director Brian Halligan) and own 4.00% of the stock, while institutional investors hold 90.39% with major stake increases from Vanguard, T. Rowe, Pictet and AQR.
• Earnings and valuation: HubSpot beat last quarter's EPS and revenue estimates with revenue up 20.4% year‑over‑year, but the shares trade at a high valuation (market cap ~$11.87B, P/E ≈ 259) and were trading around $225.

HubSpot, Inc. (NYSE:HUBS - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $399.8889.

HUBS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of HubSpot from $400.00 to $340.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of HubSpot from $485.00 to $350.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of HubSpot from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of HubSpot from $517.00 to $442.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of HubSpot in a research note on Thursday, February 12th.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Brian Halligan sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.75, for a total value of $2,233,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 370,558 shares of the company's stock, valued at $97,364,114.50. This represents a 2.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Erika Ashley Fisher sold 841 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.01, for a total transaction of $200,166.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 10,119 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,408,423.19. The trade was a 7.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 26,483 shares of company stock valued at $6,585,062. Insiders own 4.00% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HubSpot

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in HubSpot by 6.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,736,765 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,683,659,000 after buying an additional 345,524 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in HubSpot by 36.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,581,922 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,838,727,000 after buying an additional 1,224,424 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in HubSpot by 13.1% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,188,191 shares of the software maker's stock worth $533,993,000 after buying an additional 252,604 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in HubSpot by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,191,843 shares of the software maker's stock worth $478,287,000 after buying an additional 42,948 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in HubSpot by 117.6% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,188,981 shares of the software maker's stock worth $477,138,000 after buying an additional 642,545 shares in the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

HubSpot Stock Up 0.8%

HubSpot stock opened at $225.03 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.87 billion, a PE ratio of 258.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.44. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $244.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $326.84. HubSpot has a twelve month low of $187.45 and a twelve month high of $682.57.

HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The software maker reported $3.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.99 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $846.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $830.65 million. HubSpot had a net margin of 1.47% and a return on equity of 3.64%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that HubSpot will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HubSpot Company Profile

HubSpot, Inc is a software company that develops a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to help organizations attract, engage and delight customers. Its primary business activities center on providing integrated marketing, sales and customer service tools that support inbound marketing strategies, content management, lead nurturing, sales automation and customer support workflows.

The company's product suite is organized around modular “hubs” built on a central CRM: Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub and Operations Hub.

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