Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Grows Holdings in Spotify Technology $SPOT

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 47,441 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,459 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Spotify Technology were worth $27,549,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. KERR FINANCIAL PLANNING Corp purchased a new position in shares of Spotify Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new position in Spotify Technology during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Spotify Technology during the third quarter worth $35,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. lifted its stake in Spotify Technology by 1,700.0% during the fourth quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 72 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eastern Bank lifted its stake in Spotify Technology by 110.5% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 80 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. 84.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SPOT. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Spotify Technology from $500.00 to $534.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Arete Research upgraded Spotify Technology from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Spotify Technology from $430.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Spotify Technology from $760.00 to $735.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Spotify Technology from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.92.

Spotify Technology Trading Up 1.5%

NYSE SPOT opened at $503.83 on Thursday. Spotify Technology has a 52 week low of $405.00 and a 52 week high of $785.00. The stock has a market cap of $103.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $482.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $511.78.

Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $4.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.41 by $0.63. Spotify Technology had a net margin of 15.56% and a return on equity of 35.73%. The firm had revenue of $5.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.07 EPS. Spotify Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Spotify Technology will post 14.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Spotify Technology

In other news, CEO Gustav Soderstrom sold 20,833 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.52, for a total transaction of $9,864,842.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 20,609 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,758,773.68. This trade represents a 50.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Sven Hans Martin Lorentzon sold 35,380 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.73, for a total value of $18,600,327.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,383 shares in the company, valued at $3,355,734.59. This trade represents a 84.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 111,442 shares of company stock worth $54,647,508 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Spotify Technology Profile

Spotify Technology is a digital audio streaming company best known for its on-demand music service and a growing portfolio of spoken-word content. Founded in Sweden in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon and launched commercially in 2008, the company offers a cross-platform app that enables users to discover, stream and organize music, podcasts and other audio. Its primary consumer products include a free, ad-supported tier and a paid Spotify Premium subscription that provides ad-free listening, offline playback and higher-quality audio streams.