Data Storage (NASDAQ:DTST) Shares Down 1.5% – Should You Sell?

Data Storage Corp. (NASDAQ:DTST)’s stock price traded down 1.5% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $3.13 and last traded at $3.26. 28,258 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 2% from the average session volume of 28,740 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.31.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Data Storage from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Data Storage Trading Down 1.5%

The firm has a market cap of $7.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.88 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50-day moving average is $3.87 and its 200-day moving average is $4.25.

Data Storage (NASDAQ:DTST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 15th. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by $0.09. The business had revenue of $0.35 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.40 million. Data Storage had a net margin of 81.52% and a negative return on equity of 3.76%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles M. Piluso sold 32,610 shares of Data Storage stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.82, for a total transaction of $124,570.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 223,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $852,142.68. The trade was a 12.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 86,958 shares of company stock worth $333,310. Company insiders own 43.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Data Storage

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Data Storage by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 37,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 4,920 shares during the period. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of Data Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $83,000. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Data Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $134,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Data Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $137,000. Finally, Yakira Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Data Storage during the 4th quarter valued at $175,000. 11.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Data Storage

Data Storage Corporation provides data management and cloud solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers a suite of multi-cloud IT solutions, including cyber security solutions, which comprise ezSecurity, a security solution for endpoint security, system assessments, and risk analysis, as well as IBM system protection, including Ransomware defense. The company also provides data protection and recovery solutions, such as ezVault for offsite data protection; ezRecovery for fast data recovery; ezAvailability for real-time data replication with minimal recovery objectives; and ezMirror for data mirroring at the storage level.