PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) Shares Gap Up on Earnings Beat

Shares of PagerDuty, Inc. (NYSE:PD) gapped up prior to trading on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $15.61, but opened at $16.52. PagerDuty shares last traded at $18.00, with a volume of 1,083,862 shares traded.

The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. PagerDuty had a negative return on equity of 22.02% and a negative net margin of 16.29%. The business had revenue of $121.45 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.53 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.17 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

PagerDuty announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 13th that allows the company to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy up to 10.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PD. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of PagerDuty from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of PagerDuty in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded PagerDuty from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jennifer Tejada sold 1,569 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total value of $31,380.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 868,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,366,220. The trade was a 0.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Shelley Webb sold 7,879 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.19, for a total value of $143,319.01. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 199,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,622,029.18. This trade represents a 3.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 10,048 shares of company stock worth $186,699. 7.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PagerDuty

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PD. AMI Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in PagerDuty by 154.2% during the fourth quarter. AMI Asset Management Corp now owns 56,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,025,000 after buying an additional 34,063 shares in the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in shares of PagerDuty by 11.7% in the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 721,633 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,386,000 after buying an additional 75,771 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PagerDuty by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,151,314 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,915,000 after buying an additional 37,147 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of PagerDuty in the third quarter worth approximately $444,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PagerDuty by 5.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 32,915 shares of the company’s stock valued at $614,000 after acquiring an additional 1,701 shares during the period. 97.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

PagerDuty Trading Up 16.1 %

The company’s 50-day moving average is $18.24 and its 200 day moving average is $18.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a PE ratio of -22.55 and a beta of 1.12.

About PagerDuty

PagerDuty, Inc engages in the operation of a digital operations management platform in the United States and internationally. The company’s digital operations management platform collects data and digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device and leverage machine learning to correlate, process, and predict opportunities and issues.