Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN) Short Interest Up 7.8% in September

Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,230,000 shares, an increase of 7.8% from the August 31st total of 9,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,220,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.6 days. Currently, 12.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Eleanor B. Lacey sold 4,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.79, for a total transaction of $58,678.83. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 370,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,366,226.07. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Eleanor B. Lacey sold 9,308 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.99, for a total value of $111,602.92. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 375,310 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,499,966.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Eleanor B. Lacey sold 4,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.79, for a total transaction of $58,678.83. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 370,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,366,226.07. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 59,092 shares of company stock valued at $752,668. 63.97% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASAN. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC bought a new position in shares of Asana during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,246,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Asana during the 2nd quarter valued at $17,100,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in Asana by 26.9% during the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 4,032,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,456,000 after buying an additional 854,355 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Asana by 5.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,326,145 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,462,000 after buying an additional 490,823 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Asana in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,500,000. 26.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Asana from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 price target (down from $14.00) on shares of Asana in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Asana from $15.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Asana from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Asana from $19.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Asana presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.67.

Asana Price Performance

ASAN stock opened at $11.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $12.95 and a 200-day moving average of $13.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.55 and a beta of 1.16. Asana has a 12 month low of $11.05 and a 12 month high of $23.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Asana (NYSE:ASAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by $0.03. Asana had a negative return on equity of 81.88% and a negative net margin of 37.73%. The company had revenue of $179.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.68 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.31) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Asana will post -1.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Asana announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, June 20th that authorizes the company to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Asana

Asana, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a work management platform for individuals, team leads, and executives in the United States and internationally. Its platform helps organizations to orchestrate work from daily tasks to cross-functional strategic initiatives; manage work across a portfolio of projects or workflows, see progress against goals, identify bottlenecks, resource constraints, and milestones; and communicate company-wide goals, monitor status, and oversee work across projects and portfolios to gain real-time insights.