Yext (NYSE:YEXT) Shares Gap Up on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Yext, Inc. (NYSE:YEXT) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $4.92, but opened at $5.43. Yext shares last traded at $5.48, with a volume of 248,566 shares traded.

The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.02. Yext had a negative return on equity of 4.17% and a negative net margin of 1.51%. The company had revenue of $97.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.03) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YEXT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Yext from $5.50 to $5.75 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $7.50 price target (down previously from $8.00) on shares of Yext in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded Yext from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yext news, General Counsel Ho Shin sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.04, for a total transaction of $176,400.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 125,207 shares in the company, valued at $631,043.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 8.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yext

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Algert Global LLC grew its stake in shares of Yext by 410.4% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 317,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 254,924 shares in the last quarter. Lynrock Lake LP boosted its holdings in Yext by 23.8% in the second quarter. Lynrock Lake LP now owns 8,267,487 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,231,000 after purchasing an additional 1,591,791 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in Yext by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 26,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Yext by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,734,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,332,000 after purchasing an additional 526,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Yext during the 2nd quarter worth about $125,000. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yext Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.44. The company has a market cap of $701.96 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -111.30 and a beta of 1.21.

Yext Company Profile

Yext, Inc organizes business facts to provide answers to consumer questions in North America and internationally. It operates Yext platform, a cloud-based platform that allows its customers to offer answers to consumer questions, to control the facts about their businesses and the content of their landing pages, and to manage their consumer reviews; and provides customers to update their information and content through its publisher network of maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories, and social networks, as well as professional services.