Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Yext (NYSE:YEXT)

Key Points

• Traders bought 10,000 put options on Yext — a 173% increase versus typical put volume, signaling elevated bearish betting on the stock.
• CAO Allan Tang sold 10,000 shares at about $3.62 on April 15, reducing his ownership by 56%; insiders now own 5.20% of the company.
• Analysts have cut ratings and price targets, leaving Yext with an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $7.50, while the stock trades near $3.63 (market cap ≈ $447M).

Yext (NYSE:YEXT - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders bought 10,000 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 173% compared to the typical volume of 3,669 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Allan Tang sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.62, for a total value of $36,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,848 shares in the company, valued at $28,409.76. This trade represents a 56.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Yext

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of YEXT. Clearstead Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Yext by 147.1% during the fourth quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 4,677 shares of the company's stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 2,784 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new stake in Yext during the third quarter worth about $48,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Yext during the fourth quarter worth about $82,000. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in Yext during the fourth quarter worth about $86,000. Finally, Optas LLC acquired a new stake in Yext during the fourth quarter worth about $88,000. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Roth Mkm cut Yext from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $9.50 to $6.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Wall Street Zen cut Yext from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, March 15th. DA Davidson restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Yext in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. B. Riley Financial reduced their price objective on Yext from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Yext from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yext has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $7.50.

Yext Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YEXT traded down $0.09 during trading on Monday, hitting $3.63. The stock had a trading volume of 327,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,052,478. The stock has a market capitalization of $447.13 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.43 and a beta of 1.19. Yext has a 12-month low of $3.29 and a 12-month high of $9.20. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Yext (NYSE:YEXT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, March 9th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $112.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.21 million. Yext had a return on equity of 29.61% and a net margin of 8.48%.Yext's revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.13 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Yext will post -0.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Yext

Yext, Inc is a software-as-a-service company that provides a platform for digital knowledge management. Its core offering enables businesses to centrally manage and synchronize public-facing information—such as location details, product descriptions and service offerings—across a network of search engines, mapping services, voice assistants and third-party directories.

The Yext platform is built around a proprietary Knowledge Graph, which stores and structures data to ensure consistency and accuracy.

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