Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) Trading Up 4.7% - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) shares increased by 4.7%, reaching a price of $252.91 in mid-day trading, following a previous close of $241.67.
• Analysts have modified their ratings, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $257.24.
• Insider sales were notable, as Director Frank Slootman sold 710,083 shares for approximately $163.65 million, indicating a considerable decrease in his ownership position.

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW - Get Free Report)'s share price was up 4.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $253.09 and last traded at $252.91. Approximately 3,672,982 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 30% from the average daily volume of 5,240,125 shares. The stock had previously closed at $241.67.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on SNOW shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on Snowflake from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Snowflake from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on Snowflake from $245.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Snowflake from $215.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Snowflake from $212.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $257.24.

Snowflake Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $85.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -60.94 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $225.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $203.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48.

Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Snowflake had a negative return on equity of 42.98% and a negative net margin of 33.53%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.18 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Snowflake Inc. will post -2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Frank Slootman sold 710,083 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.47, for a total value of $163,652,829.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 165,507 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,144,398.29. The trade was a 81.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christian Kleinerman sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.50, for a total value of $2,335,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 527,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at $123,132,956. This represents a 1.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,182,434 shares of company stock valued at $270,280,661 over the last 90 days. 6.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Snowflake

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Snowflake by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,789,761 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,218,515,000 after purchasing an additional 595,553 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in Snowflake in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,900,134,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Snowflake by 20.5% in the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 8,000,667 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,790,309,000 after acquiring an additional 1,363,389 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Snowflake by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,887,073 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,541,120,000 after acquiring an additional 94,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Snowflake by 15.2% in the 2nd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 4,951,715 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,108,045,000 after acquiring an additional 652,485 shares in the last quarter. 65.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Snowflake

Snowflake Inc provides a cloud-based data platform for various organizations in the United States and internationally. Its platform offers Data Cloud, which enables customers to consolidate data into a single source of truth to drive meaningful business insights, build data-driven applications, and share data and data products, as well as applies artificial intelligence (AI) for solving business problems.

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