Wall Street Zen Downgrades HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) to Hold

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen has downgraded HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating, reflecting potential concerns among analysts about the stock's current performance.
• Despite the downgrade, HubSpot maintains a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with a price target of $717.75, indicating that many analysts still see long-term value in the company.
• Recent insider trading activity includes sales by CFO Kathryn Bueker and CEO Yamini Rangan, with insiders collectively selling over 50,000 shares in the last quarter, highlighting potential shifts in management confidence.

HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on HUBS. UBS Group restated an "outperform" rating on shares of HubSpot in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Macquarie dropped their price objective on HubSpot from $730.00 to $660.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of HubSpot in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on HubSpot from $860.00 to $775.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on HubSpot from $600.00 to $550.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, HubSpot has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $717.75.

HubSpot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HUBS opened at $469.72 on Friday. HubSpot has a 1 year low of $418.34 and a 1 year high of $881.13. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $475.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $532.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.75 billion, a PE ratio of -2,042.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.41 and a beta of 1.58.

HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.07. HubSpot had a positive return on equity of 1.74% and a negative net margin of 0.42%.The business had revenue of $760.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $739.94 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.94 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that HubSpot will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HubSpot news, CFO Kathryn Bueker sold 615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total transaction of $307,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 38,794 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,397,000. This trade represents a 1.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Yamini Rangan sold 2,387 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total value of $1,193,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 56,277 shares in the company, valued at $28,138,500. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,863 shares of company stock worth $24,641,332 over the last quarter. Insiders own 4.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of HubSpot

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HUBS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of HubSpot by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,391,241 shares of the software maker's stock worth $3,000,926,000 after purchasing an additional 144,507 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of HubSpot by 17.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,910,062 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,805,070,000 after purchasing an additional 714,980 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of HubSpot by 37.3% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 927,927 shares of the software maker's stock worth $530,115,000 after purchasing an additional 251,853 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of HubSpot by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 925,938 shares of the software maker's stock worth $513,886,000 after purchasing an additional 38,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of HubSpot by 548.6% in the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 794,677 shares of the software maker's stock worth $442,341,000 after purchasing an additional 672,158 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company's stock.

About HubSpot

HubSpot, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform for businesses in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's CRM platform includes Marketing Hub, a toolset for marketing automation and email, social media, SEO, and reporting and analytics; Sales Hub offers email templates and tracking, conversations and live chat, meeting and call scheduling, lead and website visit alerts, lead scoring, sales automation, pipeline management, quoting, forecasting, and reporting; Service Hub, a service software designed to help businesses manage, respond, and connect with customers; and Content Management Systems Hub enables businesses to create new and edit existing web content.

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