Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) Rating Increased to Buy at Guggenheim

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) was upgraded by analysts at Guggenheim from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a $40.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $39.00. Guggenheim’s price target points to a potential upside of 23.28% from the stock’s current price.

PINS has been the topic of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target (up from $45.00) on shares of Pinterest in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised Pinterest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Pinterest from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Pinterest from $46.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $36.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.33.

Pinterest Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of PINS stock opened at $32.45 on Monday. Pinterest has a 52 week low of $27.00 and a 52 week high of $45.19. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $34.39 and a 200-day moving average of $32.29. The company has a market cap of $22.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.02.

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.30). Pinterest had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 51.07%. Analysts anticipate that Pinterest will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Pinterest

In other Pinterest news, Director Benjamin Silbermann sold 102,083 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.16, for a total transaction of $3,180,906.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,274 shares in the company, valued at $195,497.84. This trade represents a 94.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Andrea Acosta sold 3,667 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.46, for a total transaction of $137,365.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 144,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,399,072.34. This trade represents a 2.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 207,812 shares of company stock worth $6,798,857 in the last quarter. Insiders own 7.11% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Pinterest by 7.4% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in Pinterest by 1,109.4% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,796 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 8,986 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in Pinterest during the 3rd quarter valued at about $458,000. Commerce Bank increased its position in shares of Pinterest by 3.3% during the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 11,868 shares of the company’s stock valued at $384,000 after buying an additional 378 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Pinterest by 4.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 844,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,326,000 after buying an additional 32,539 shares in the last quarter. 88.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Pinterest

Pinterest, Inc operates as a visual search and discovery platform in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows people to find ideas, such as recipes, home and style inspiration, and others; and to search, save, and shop the ideas. The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc in April 2012.