Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Symbotic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYM) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after DA Davidson upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. The stock had previously closed at $56.56, but opened at $61.04. DA Davidson now has a $70.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $57.00. Symbotic shares last traded at $59.6740, with a volume of 398,283 shares traded.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. UBS Group set a $70.00 price objective on Symbotic in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Symbotic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Northland Securities set a $73.00 target price on shares of Symbotic in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Symbotic from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Symbotic in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Symbotic news, insider William M. Boyd III sold 5,115 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.99, for a total transaction of $286,388.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 61,679 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,453,407.21. This trade represents a 7.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Todd Krasnow sold 4,000 shares of Symbotic stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.73, for a total transaction of $214,920.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 178,492 shares of company stock valued at $10,313,214. Company insiders own 8.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Symbotic by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,932,158 shares of the company’s stock worth $412,463,000 after purchasing an additional 2,237,137 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Symbotic by 85.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,530,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,587,000 after buying an additional 1,165,513 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Symbotic by 51,346.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,174,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,375,000 after buying an additional 2,178,615 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its position in Symbotic by 22.3% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,105,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,601,000 after buying an additional 201,547 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ghisallo Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Symbotic in the fourth quarter worth $63,034,000.

Symbotic Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $53.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.92 billion, a PE ratio of -596.79, a P/E/G ratio of 5.47 and a beta of 2.10.

Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $629.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $622.58 million. Symbotic had a negative net margin of 0.45% and a negative return on equity of 1.88%. The firm’s revenue was up 29.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.03) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Symbotic Inc. will post 0.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Symbotic Company Profile

Symbotic Inc (NASDAQ: SYM) is a provider of advanced warehouse automation and robotics systems designed to improve throughput, space utilization and labor productivity in distribution centers and fulfillment operations. The company develops integrated hardware and software solutions that automate the storage, retrieval, sorting and palletizing of goods, positioning itself as a systems integrator for material handling challenges faced by large-scale retailers, wholesalers and third-party logistics providers.

Products and services typically include autonomous robotic vehicles and shuttle systems, automated storage-and-retrieval equipment, robotic picking and palletizing cells, conveyors and sortation, together with control and management software that coordinates fleet operations and inventory flow.