8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,160,000 shares, a growth of 8.8% from the November 30th total of 7,500,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 865,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 9.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on EGHT shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on 8X8 from $2.00 to $2.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com raised 8X8 from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho lowered shares of 8X8 from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $2.75 to $2.50 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price target (down from $7.00) on shares of 8X8 in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price target on shares of 8X8 from $4.00 to $3.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $2.87.

8X8 Trading Down 1.8 %

8X8 stock opened at $2.67 on Thursday. 8X8 has a 52 week low of $1.51 and a 52 week high of $3.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.26, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $348.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.85, a P/E/G ratio of 26.98 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $2.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.37.

8X8 (NASDAQ:EGHT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $181.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.38 million. 8X8 had a negative net margin of 9.68% and a negative return on equity of 6.00%. 8X8’s revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.02 EPS. Research analysts forecast that 8X8 will post 0.01 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in 8X8 by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 679,581 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,386,000 after buying an additional 4,145 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in 8X8 by 16.6% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 38,245 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 5,453 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of 8X8 by 8.2% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 148,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 11,287 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of 8X8 in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of 8X8 in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors own 93.99% of the company’s stock.

About 8X8

8×8, Inc provides voice, video, chat, contact center, and enterprise-class application programmable interface (API) Software-as-a-Service solutions for small business, mid-market, enterprise customers, government agencies, and other organizations worldwide. It offers 8×8 Work, a self-contained end-to-end united communications solution that delivers voice services, secure video meetings, and unified messaging, including direct messages, public and private team messaging rooms, and peer-to-peer short and multimedia messaging; 8×8 Contact Center, a cloud-based contact center as-a-service solution; and 8×8 Engage, an artificial intelligence-powered solution that equips customer-facing employees outside the contact center with the tools and capabilities to deliver successful customer engagements.