Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,740,000 shares, a growth of 7.5% from the January 15th total of 2,550,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 461,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.9 days. Approximately 5.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Transactions at Criteo

In other news, CEO Megan Clarken sold 13,823 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.56, for a total value of $602,129.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 488,229 shares in the company, valued at $21,267,255.24. The trade was a 2.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian Gleason sold 3,135 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.95, for a total value of $115,838.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 139,085 shares in the company, valued at $5,139,190.75. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 42,845 shares of company stock worth $1,795,516 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRTO. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Criteo by 230.1% in the third quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC now owns 2,519,864 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $101,399,000 after purchasing an additional 1,756,507 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Criteo in the third quarter worth $48,653,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Criteo by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,796,975 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $150,208,000 after purchasing an additional 1,052,126 shares during the period. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Criteo by 41,776.0% in the fourth quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 994,555 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $39,348,000 after purchasing an additional 992,180 shares during the period. Finally, Senvest Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Criteo by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 3,639,479 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $143,978,000 after purchasing an additional 743,695 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CRTO. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Criteo from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $61.00 price target (up previously from $59.00) on shares of Criteo in a report on Thursday, February 6th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Criteo from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Criteo from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 8th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $51.00 price target on shares of Criteo in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.90.

Criteo Stock Performance

CRTO stock traded up $0.80 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $44.52. 507,999 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 463,777. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $40.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.51. Criteo has a 52 week low of $30.76 and a 52 week high of $49.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.46 billion, a PE ratio of 26.50 and a beta of 1.05.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $1.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.04. Criteo had a net margin of 5.08% and a return on equity of 16.37%. As a group, analysts predict that Criteo will post 2.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Criteo Company Profile

Criteo SA, a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties.