Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) Stock Price Up 4.4% on Analyst Upgrade

Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO) rose 4.4% during mid-day trading on Monday after HSBC upgraded the stock from a reduce rating to a hold rating. HSBC now has a $99.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $77.00. Twilio traded as high as $104.67 and last traded at $104.54. Approximately 1,148,627 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 2,689,520 shares. The stock had previously closed at $100.11.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Twilio from $160.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Twilio from $160.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on Twilio from $135.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Twilio from $165.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Twilio from $160.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $120.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Khozema Shipchandler sold 12,056 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.88, for a total value of $1,155,929.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 295,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,297,447.92. This represents a 3.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Aidan Viggiano sold 7,524 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.88, for a total transaction of $721,401.12. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 176,640 shares in the company, valued at $16,936,243.20. This trade represents a 4.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,471 shares of company stock valued at $2,344,149 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twilio

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Twilio during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Twilio in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Cloud Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Twilio in the first quarter worth about $34,000. UMB Bank n.a. purchased a new stake in shares of Twilio during the first quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, CX Institutional bought a new stake in shares of Twilio in the 1st quarter valued at about $39,000. 84.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Twilio Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $15.41 billion, a PE ratio of -157.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.44. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $96.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.55.

Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The technology company reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Twilio had a positive return on equity of 1.38% and a negative net margin of 2.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Twilio Inc. will post 1.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.