Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO) shares gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $114.31, but opened at $119.28. Twilio shares last traded at $115.49, with a volume of 906,775 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on TWLO. Morgan Stanley raised Twilio from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $144.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Monday. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on shares of Twilio from $135.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Twilio from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Twilio in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Twilio from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Twilio has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.26.

Twilio Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The company has a market capitalization of $18.14 billion, a PE ratio of -184.57, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.42.

Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.77). Twilio had a positive return on equity of 1.38% and a negative net margin of 2.45%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.19 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Twilio Inc. will post 1.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Twilio

In other Twilio news, CEO Khozema Shipchandler sold 10,834 shares of Twilio stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.58, for a total value of $1,230,525.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 244,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,823,806.18. The trade was a 4.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Dana Wagner sold 4,629 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $509,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 125,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,813,360. The trade was a 3.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,906 shares of company stock worth $2,950,514 over the last 90 days. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in Twilio by 0.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,206,488 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $600,447,000 after buying an additional 77,436 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Twilio by 718.7% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,262,765 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,640,000 after acquiring an additional 2,864,235 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Twilio by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,867,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $187,026,000 after acquiring an additional 444,295 shares during the period. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Twilio in the fourth quarter worth approximately $301,258,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Twilio by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,724,406 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $177,622,000 after purchasing an additional 33,824 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.27% of the company’s stock.

About Twilio

Twilio Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides customer engagement platform solutions in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Twilio Communications and Twilio Segment. The company provides various application programming interfaces and software solutions for communications between customers and end users, including messaging, voice, email, flex, marketing campaigns, and user identity and authentication.