Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Friday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded the stock from an overweight rating to a neutral rating. The stock had previously closed at $94.34, but opened at $90.88. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now has a $100.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $145.00. Roblox shares last traded at $90.5340, with a volume of 1,627,340 shares changing hands.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on RBLX. Barclays upped their price target on Roblox from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target (up from $155.00) on shares of Roblox in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Roblox in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $99.00 target price on Roblox in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on Roblox from $158.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $135.88.

Insider Transactions at Roblox

In related news, CFO Naveen K. Chopra sold 19,424 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.23, for a total transaction of $1,849,747.52. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 337,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,095,938.28. The trade was a 5.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Anthony P. Lee sold 66,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.54, for a total value of $6,107,640.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 261,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,188,845.52. This represents a 20.16% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 382,508 shares of company stock worth $40,838,541 over the last quarter. Insiders own 12.92% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Roblox

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RBLX. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Roblox by 217.4% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,770,427 shares of the company’s stock worth $504,387,000 after buying an additional 6,007,322 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Roblox during the second quarter worth $350,720,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Roblox by 5.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,437,998 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,648,911,000 after purchasing an additional 3,284,073 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in Roblox by 13.8% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 18,889,973 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,101,097,000 after purchasing an additional 2,297,350 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in Roblox by 55.5% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 4,960,806 shares of the company’s stock worth $288,818,000 after purchasing an additional 1,769,669 shares during the last quarter. 94.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Roblox Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $57.90 billion, a PE ratio of -61.83 and a beta of 1.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $110.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $114.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.54, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Roblox had a negative return on equity of 314.20% and a negative net margin of 21.70%.The firm’s revenue was up 70.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.37) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Roblox Corporation will post -1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Roblox Company Profile

Roblox Corporation develops and operates an online entertainment platform in the United States and internationally. It offers Roblox Studio, a free toolset that allows developers and creators to build, publish, and operate 3D experiences, and other content; Roblox Client, an application that allows users to explore 3D experience; and Roblox Cloud, which provides services and infrastructure that power the platform.