Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Monday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on CRTO. KeyCorp cut Criteo from an overweight rating to a sector weight rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. DA Davidson raised their target price on Criteo from $35.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Criteo from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Criteo from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Macquarie raised their price target on Criteo from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $49.80.

Criteo Price Performance

CRTO stock opened at $46.87 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.32 and a beta of 0.99. Criteo has a 1 year low of $22.10 and a 1 year high of $49.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $40.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.99.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The information services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.31. Criteo had a return on equity of 15.64% and a net margin of 4.54%. The company had revenue of $471.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $263.64 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.12 EPS. Criteo’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Criteo will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Criteo

In other news, major shareholder Till Hufnagel bought 6,000 shares of Criteo stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $37.67 per share, with a total value of $226,020.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 1,777,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $66,955,599.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Till Hufnagel bought 6,000 shares of Criteo stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $37.67 per share, with a total value of $226,020.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 1,777,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $66,955,599.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Megan Clarken sold 3,894 shares of Criteo stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.99, for a total value of $151,827.06. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 533,202 shares in the company, valued at $20,789,545.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 20,003 shares of company stock valued at $812,355. 1.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRTO. VELA Investment Management LLC grew its position in Criteo by 21.5% in the fourth quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 99,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,509,000 after acquiring an additional 17,561 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Criteo by 85.6% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 162,167 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,106,000 after acquiring an additional 74,774 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its position in Criteo by 136.0% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 55,200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,398,000 after acquiring an additional 31,807 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in Criteo by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 11,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in Criteo in the fourth quarter worth about $660,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.27% of the company’s stock.

About Criteo

Criteo SA, a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties.