Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Asana Call Options (NYSE:ASAN)

Key Points

• Investors bought an unusually large volume of Asana call options — 14,972 calls on Tuesday, a 326% increase over the typical volume of 3,511 contracts.
• Analysts have been knocking down price targets and ratings recently, leaving Asana with a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $12.32 after multiple downgrades and cuts.
• Company insiders have been selling shares (including CAO Veronica Sosa and CFO Sonalee Parekh), with 70,226 shares sold in the past 90 days, though insiders still own 61.28% of the stock.

Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors purchased 14,972 call options on the company. This is an increase of 326% compared to the typical volume of 3,511 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASAN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Asana from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Sunday. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Asana in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Asana from $15.00 to $8.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Asana from $16.00 to $9.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Asana from $14.00 to $8.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Asana has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $12.32.

Insider Buying and Selling at Asana

In other news, CAO Veronica Sosa sold 6,479 shares of Asana stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.65, for a total transaction of $43,085.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 73,722 shares of the company's stock, valued at $490,251.30. The trade was a 8.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Sonalee Elizabeth Parekh sold 34,151 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.65, for a total transaction of $227,104.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 933,998 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,211,086.70. This represents a 3.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,226 shares of company stock valued at $472,065. 61.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Asana

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Asana by 13.9% in the 1st quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 33,716 shares of the company's stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 4,117 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Asana by 51.0% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 99,402 shares of the company's stock valued at $636,000 after acquiring an additional 33,592 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Asana by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 106,753 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,464,000 after acquiring an additional 16,500 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Asana in the fourth quarter valued at about $211,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Asana by 213.4% in the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 235,451 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,228,000 after purchasing an additional 160,329 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.21% of the company's stock.

Asana Trading Up 4.8%

ASAN traded up $0.31 on Tuesday, hitting $6.60. 4,632,179 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,836,669. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.24 and a beta of 1.08. Asana has a fifty-two week low of $5.38 and a fifty-two week high of $19.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $6.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.79.

Asana (NYSE:ASAN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $205.57 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $205.13 million. Asana had a negative net margin of 23.90% and a negative return on equity of 77.05%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Asana will post -0.53 EPS for the current year.

About Asana

Asana, Inc NYSE: ASAN is a leading provider of work management and collaboration software designed to help teams organize, track and manage their work. Founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein, Asana's platform enables users to create projects, assign tasks, set deadlines and visualize progress across diverse workflows. The company's cloud-based solution includes customizable project templates, timeline views, boards and automated rules that streamline routine processes and reduce manual effort.

Built for both small teams and large enterprises, Asana supports integrations with a wide array of third-party applications, including communication tools, file-sharing services and DevOps platforms.

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