Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Lowers Root (NASDAQ:ROOT) Price Target to $95.00

Root (NASDAQ:ROOT) had its price objective dropped by investment analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $104.00 to $95.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price suggests a potential upside of 104.57% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on ROOT. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Root from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Root from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Root from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Root from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Root from $90.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $96.00.

Root Stock Performance

Shares of ROOT stock opened at $46.44 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. The company has a market capitalization of $722.61 million, a P/E ratio of 20.02 and a beta of 2.90. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $51.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.50. Root has a 52 week low of $40.91 and a 52 week high of $162.99.

Root (NASDAQ:ROOT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.03 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $397.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $381.57 million. Root had a net margin of 2.58% and a return on equity of 15.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.30 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Root will post -0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Root

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Root by 3.0% in the second quarter. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC now owns 6,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Root by 4.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 5,141 shares of the company’s stock valued at $686,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Root by 2.9% in the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 15,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of Root by 10.9% in the third quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 5,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $457,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Root by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,553,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 59.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Root Company Profile

Root, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker ROOT, is a Columbus, Ohio–based insurance company that leverages mobile technology and data analytics to offer personalized auto insurance policies. Founded in 2015 by Alex Timm and Dan Manges, Root set out to transform traditional underwriting by focusing on individual driving behavior rather than broad demographic factors.

The company’s core product is usage-based auto insurance, delivered through a smartphone app that monitors driving patterns such as speed, braking and phone usage behind the wheel.