Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN) by 26.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,983 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,028 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Asana were worth $70,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Asana during the 4th quarter worth approximately $197,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Asana by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 696,277 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,236,000 after acquiring an additional 43,564 shares during the period. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC raised its position in Asana by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 38,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $728,000 after acquiring an additional 4,401 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Asana by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,319 shares of the company’s stock valued at $386,000 after buying an additional 828 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Asana in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,500,000. 26.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Asana

In other news, CFO Tim M. Wan sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total value of $75,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 1,063,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,958,635. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Asana news, CFO Tim M. Wan sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total value of $150,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,050,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,754,260. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Tim M. Wan sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total value of $75,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,063,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,958,635. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 84,443 shares of company stock valued at $1,026,976. Corporate insiders own 63.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASAN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Asana from $19.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Asana from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Asana from $15.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. JMP Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Asana from $27.00 to $21.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Asana from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Asana presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.67.

Asana Price Performance

Shares of ASAN opened at $12.03 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Asana, Inc. has a 1 year low of $11.05 and a 1 year high of $23.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.28 and a beta of 1.16. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $13.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.25.

Asana (NYSE:ASAN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $179.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.68 million. Asana had a negative return on equity of 81.88% and a negative net margin of 37.73%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.31) EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Asana, Inc. will post -1.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Asana declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, June 20th that allows the company to buyback $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About Asana

Asana, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a work management platform for individuals, team leads, and executives in the United States and internationally. Its platform helps organizations to orchestrate work from daily tasks to cross-functional strategic initiatives; manage work across a portfolio of projects or workflows, see progress against goals, identify bottlenecks, resource constraints, and milestones; and communicate company-wide goals, monitor status, and oversee work across projects and portfolios to gain real-time insights.