Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) Trading 2% Higher – Still a Buy?

Symbotic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYM) rose 2% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $56.32 and last traded at $55.08. Approximately 1,305,958 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 39% from the average daily volume of 2,146,724 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.01.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SYM has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Symbotic in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Symbotic from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Symbotic in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Symbotic from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Symbotic from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.57.

Symbotic Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $33.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -550.74, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 2.13. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $60.61.

Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $629.99 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $622.58 million. Symbotic had a negative net margin of 0.45% and a negative return on equity of 1.88%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.03) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Symbotic Inc. will post 0.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Symbotic

In other news, insider Maria G. Freve sold 8,306 shares of Symbotic stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.11, for a total transaction of $457,743.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,704.29. This trade represents a 93.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Todd Krasnow sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.73, for a total transaction of $214,920.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,204,212 shares of company stock valued at $385,123,962. Company insiders own 8.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Symbotic

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SYM. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Symbotic by 13.3% in the second quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 445,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,308,000 after buying an additional 52,205 shares in the last quarter. Barton Investment Management purchased a new position in shares of Symbotic in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,640,000. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Symbotic in the 2nd quarter worth $361,000. Grove Street Fiduciary LLC raised its position in shares of Symbotic by 314.4% in the 3rd quarter. Grove Street Fiduciary LLC now owns 35,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,886,000 after acquiring an additional 26,555 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mutual Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Symbotic during the 3rd quarter worth $1,919,000.

About Symbotic

Symbotic Inc (NASDAQ: SYM) is a provider of advanced warehouse automation and robotics systems designed to improve throughput, space utilization and labor productivity in distribution centers and fulfillment operations. The company develops integrated hardware and software solutions that automate the storage, retrieval, sorting and palletizing of goods, positioning itself as a systems integrator for material handling challenges faced by large-scale retailers, wholesalers and third-party logistics providers.

Products and services typically include autonomous robotic vehicles and shuttle systems, automated storage-and-retrieval equipment, robotic picking and palletizing cells, conveyors and sortation, together with control and management software that coordinates fleet operations and inventory flow.