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

Symbotic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYM) shares 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 trading hands.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Northland Securities set a $73.00 target price on Symbotic in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen cut Symbotic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Symbotic in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Barclays upped their target price on Symbotic from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Finally, UBS Group set a $70.00 target price on Symbotic in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider William M. Boyd III sold 5,115 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.99, for a total value of $286,388.85. Following the transaction, the insider owned 61,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,453,407.21. This represents a 7.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO James Kuffner sold 77,321 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.76, for a total value of $4,620,702.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 144,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,664,124.32. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 178,492 shares of company stock valued at $10,313,214 over the last 90 days. 8.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SYM. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in Symbotic by 28.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 84,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,714,000 after purchasing an additional 18,967 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Symbotic by 15.0% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 84,899 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,716,000 after purchasing an additional 11,098 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. bought a new position in Symbotic in the second quarter worth approximately $804,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Symbotic by 33.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 304,207 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,818,000 after purchasing an additional 75,828 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cresset Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Symbotic in the second quarter worth approximately $267,000.

Symbotic Stock Up 3.9%

The company has a market cap of $35.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -587.34, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 2.10. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $53.74 and a 200-day moving average of $61.21.

Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $629.99 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.03) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Symbotic Inc. will post 0.13 EPS 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.