Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their price target on Symbotic from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Symbotic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 30th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Symbotic from $57.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $47.00 price objective on shares of Symbotic in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Symbotic in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.79.

Symbotic Trading Up 3.0%

NASDAQ SYM opened at $63.51 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $64.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.72. Symbotic has a 52 week low of $16.32 and a 52 week high of $87.88. The stock has a market cap of $37.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -423.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 17.49 and a beta of 2.13.

Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 24th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by ($0.11). Symbotic had a negative net margin of 0.75% and a negative return on equity of 3.89%. The company had revenue of $618.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $604.00 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. Symbotic’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Symbotic will post 0.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Symbotic

In other news, Director Todd Krasnow sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.63, for a total value of $274,520.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Group Corp. Softbank sold 3,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.21, for a total value of $186,235,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,590,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $297,443,900. The trade was a 38.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 7,065,981 shares of company stock worth $377,394,265. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Symbotic

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Symbotic by 13.3% during the 2nd quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 445,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,308,000 after purchasing an additional 52,205 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC bought a new stake in Symbotic during the second quarter worth about $255,000. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Symbotic during the second quarter worth about $361,000. Barton Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Symbotic during the third quarter worth approximately $1,640,000. Finally, Prospera Financial Services Inc bought a new position in shares of Symbotic in the second quarter valued at approximately $861,000.

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.