Proofpoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:PFPT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley in a report released on Thursday, July 20th. They currently have a $102.00 price target on the software maker’s stock, up from their previous price target of $97.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 18.22% from the company’s previous close.
Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Proofpoint in a report on Monday, April 3rd. Piper Jaffray Companies set a $90.00 price target on shares of Proofpoint and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 21st. FBN Securities started coverage on shares of Proofpoint in a research note on Monday, May 22nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on shares of Proofpoint in a research report on Wednesday, June 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $90.00 price target for the company. Finally, Susquehanna Bancshares Inc started coverage on shares of Proofpoint in a research report on Wednesday, June 7th. They set a “positive” rating and a $106.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and twenty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.78.
Proofpoint (PFPT) traded up 1.36% during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $87.45. The company had a trading volume of 172,375 shares. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $87.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $82.18. The stock’s market cap is $3.88 billion. Proofpoint has a 12 month low of $68.04 and a 12 month high of $94.33.
Proofpoint (NASDAQ:PFPT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The software maker reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $122.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.58 million. Proofpoint had a negative net margin of 20.96% and a negative return on equity of 140.24%. Proofpoint’s revenue was up 36.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.06 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Proofpoint will post $0.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.
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In related news, SVP Robert Darren Lee sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.75, for a total value of $241,312.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $668,567.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Bhagwat Swaroop sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.17, for a total transaction of $425,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 13,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,120,922.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 186,299 shares of company stock worth $15,989,869. Corporate insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Proofpoint by 6.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,314,857 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $246,493,000 after buying an additional 207,412 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Proofpoint by 22,439.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,193,429 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $237,464,000 after buying an additional 3,179,261 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its position in Proofpoint by 161.6% in the first quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 2,313,715 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $172,048,000 after buying an additional 1,429,192 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. increased its position in Proofpoint by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 852,205 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $60,208,000 after buying an additional 123,655 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in Proofpoint by 3.3% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 791,294 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $58,840,000 after buying an additional 25,368 shares in the last quarter.
About Proofpoint
Proofpoint, Inc is a security-as-a-service provider that enables large and mid-sized organizations to defend, protect, archive and govern their sensitive data. The Company’s security-as-a-service platform consists of an integrated suite of on-demand data protection solutions, including threat protection, incident response, regulatory compliance, archiving, governance, eDiscovery and secure communication.
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