Short Interest in Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) Drops By 5.7%

Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,150,000 shares, a decline of 5.7% from the August 15th total of 2,280,000 shares. Approximately 4.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 468,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Criteo

In related news, CFO Sarah Js Glickman sold 5,496 shares of Criteo stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.49, for a total value of $250,013.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 320,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,565,943.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CRTO. Cadian Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Criteo by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. Cadian Capital Management LP now owns 4,239,314 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $107,339,000 after purchasing an additional 1,751,511 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Criteo by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,195,542 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $76,972,000 after buying an additional 6,698 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its position in Criteo by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,100,902 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,608,000 after buying an additional 37,364 shares during the period. Orchard Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Criteo by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Orchard Capital Management LLC now owns 453,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,493,000 after acquiring an additional 14,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. raised its stake in shares of Criteo by 1.9% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 407,822 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,353,000 after acquiring an additional 7,469 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.27% of the company’s stock.

Criteo Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ CRTO opened at $42.35 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.44. Criteo has a twelve month low of $22.10 and a twelve month high of $49.93. The company has a market capitalization of $2.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.66 and a beta of 0.99.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The information services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.31. Criteo had a return on equity of 15.64% and a net margin of 4.54%. The company had revenue of $471.31 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $263.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.12 EPS. Criteo’s quarterly revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Criteo will post 2.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. DA Davidson upgraded Criteo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Benchmark lifted their target price on Criteo from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Criteo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Criteo from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Criteo from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.11.

About Criteo

Criteo SA, a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties.