BOX Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:BOX)

Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 2,272 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 75% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,295 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of BOX to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup upped their price target on BOX from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com raised BOX from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of BOX in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of BOX in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BOX currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.22.

BOX Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of BOX opened at $34.28 on Friday. BOX has a 12-month low of $23.29 and a 12-month high of $35.07. The firm has a market cap of $4.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.39 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $32.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.40.

BOX (NYSE:BOX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 27th. The software maker reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $270.04 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $269.52 million. BOX had a net margin of 13.94% and a negative return on equity of 14.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.01 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that BOX will post 0.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at BOX

In other BOX news, Director Jack R. Lazar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.68, for a total transaction of $228,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 29,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $954,157.96. This represents a 19.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 13,000 shares of BOX stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.21, for a total value of $444,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,461,509 shares in the company, valued at $49,998,222.89. This represents a 0.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,500 shares of company stock valued at $1,939,895. 4.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BOX

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Glenmede Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of BOX by 1.6% in the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 34,107 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in BOX by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 15,831 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $419,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares in the last quarter. Connable Office Inc. increased its holdings in BOX by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Connable Office Inc. now owns 15,707 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $415,000 after purchasing an additional 573 shares during the period. Creative Planning raised its position in BOX by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,743 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $515,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in BOX by 31.7% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,627 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 632 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.74% of the company’s stock.

About BOX

Box, Inc provides a cloud content management platform that enables organizations of various sizes to manage and share their content from anywhere on any device. The company's Software-as-a-Service platform enables users to work with their content as they need from secure external collaboration and sharing, workspaces and portals, e-signature processes, and content workflows improving employee productivity and accelerating business processes.