8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) was the target of a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,160,000 shares, an increase of 8.8% from the November 30th total of 7,500,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 865,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EGHT. Mizuho downgraded shares of 8X8 from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $2.75 to $2.50 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on 8X8 from $2.00 to $2.60 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on 8X8 from $4.00 to $3.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $7.00) on shares of 8X8 in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Wedbush upgraded 8X8 to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, 8X8 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $2.87.

8X8 Stock Performance

EGHT stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $2.67. 459,615 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,147,912. The firm has a market capitalization of $348.86 million, a PE ratio of -4.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 26.98 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $2.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.37. 8X8 has a 52 week low of $1.51 and a 52 week high of $3.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.26, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18.

8X8 (NASDAQ:EGHT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $181.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.38 million. 8X8 had a negative return on equity of 6.00% and a negative net margin of 9.68%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.02 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that 8X8 will post 0.01 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On 8X8

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in 8X8 by 178.7% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 94,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $192,000 after purchasing an additional 60,316 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of 8X8 in the third quarter worth $36,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of 8X8 by 198.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 216,123 shares of the company’s stock worth $440,000 after buying an additional 143,791 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 8X8 by 8.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,982,393 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,085,000 after buying an additional 237,181 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd boosted its stake in 8X8 by 487.9% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 130,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $266,000 after buying an additional 108,293 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.99% of the company’s stock.

8X8 Company Profile

8×8, Inc provides voice, video, chat, contact center, and enterprise-class application programmable interface (API) Software-as-a-Service solutions for small business, mid-market, enterprise customers, government agencies, and other organizations worldwide. It offers 8×8 Work, a self-contained end-to-end united communications solution that delivers voice services, secure video meetings, and unified messaging, including direct messages, public and private team messaging rooms, and peer-to-peer short and multimedia messaging; 8×8 Contact Center, a cloud-based contact center as-a-service solution; and 8×8 Engage, an artificial intelligence-powered solution that equips customer-facing employees outside the contact center with the tools and capabilities to deliver successful customer engagements.