Benefitfocus (NASDAQ:BNFT) Earns News Sentiment Rating of 0.16

Headlines about Benefitfocus (NASDAQ:BNFT) have been trending somewhat positive this week, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research group identifies negative and positive news coverage by analyzing more than 20 million news and blog sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Benefitfocus earned a media sentiment score of 0.16 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media coverage about the software maker an impact score of 45.9589840339024 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the next several days.

Shares of Benefitfocus (NASDAQ BNFT) traded up 2.30% on Friday, hitting $28.95. The stock had a trading volume of 204,673 shares. The stock’s market cap is $902.63 million. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.91. Benefitfocus has a 12 month low of $24.55 and a 12 month high of $42.49.

Benefitfocus (NASDAQ:BNFT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The software maker reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.09. The business had revenue of $63.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.07 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.22) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Benefitfocus will post ($0.30) earnings per share for the current year.

A number of research firms recently commented on BNFT. Berenberg Bank reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $36.00 target price on shares of Benefitfocus in a research note on Thursday, August 10th. Zacks Investment Research raised Benefitfocus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $31.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. Raymond James Financial, Inc. increased their target price on Benefitfocus from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Piper Jaffray Companies reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Benefitfocus in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Chardan Capital cut Benefitfocus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $36.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.00.

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About Benefitfocus

Benefitfocus, Inc (Benefitfocus) is a provider of cloud-based benefits management platform for consumers, employers, insurance carriers and brokers. The Benefitfocus Platform allows how organizations and individuals shop for, enroll in, manage and exchange benefits. The Company operates through two business segments: Employer, which derives its revenue from customers that use the Company’s services for the provision of benefits to their employees, and administrators acting on behalf of employers, Carrier, which derives its revenue from insurance companies that provide coverage at their own risk.