Lazard Asset Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS)

Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS - Free Report) by 14.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 180,623 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 22,899 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC's holdings in Pinterest were worth $5,237,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Pinterest by 104.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 25,432,141 shares of the company's stock valued at $737,533,000 after buying an additional 12,986,310 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Pinterest during the 4th quarter worth approximately $358,205,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Pinterest by 134.1% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 10,701,783 shares of the company's stock worth $310,352,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,985 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Pinterest by 49.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 13,635,800 shares of the company's stock valued at $395,441,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,902 shares during the period. Finally, Contour Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pinterest during the 4th quarter valued at $86,330,000. 88.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on PINS shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Pinterest from $50.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt dropped their target price on shares of Pinterest from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Pinterest from $36.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $50.00 to $39.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Pinterest from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $40.26.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gokul Rajaram sold 1,150 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.19, for a total value of $45,068.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,086 shares in the company, valued at $1,139,880.34. The trade was a 3.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Benjamin Silbermann sold 408,332 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $13,540,289.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,274 shares of the company's stock, valued at $208,045.84. The trade was a 98.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 862,168 shares of company stock valued at $28,368,681 in the last ninety days. 7.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Pinterest Stock Performance

Shares of PINS traded down $0.55 on Monday, reaching $32.02. The stock had a trading volume of 11,091,277 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,735,768. Pinterest, Inc. has a 12-month low of $23.68 and a 12-month high of $45.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.22.

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $854.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $848.49 million. Pinterest had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 51.07%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Pinterest, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pinterest Profile

Pinterest, Inc operates as a visual search and discovery platform in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows people to find ideas, such as recipes, home and style inspiration, and others; and to search, save, and shop the ideas. The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc in April 2012.