Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,280,000 shares, an increase of 12.3% from the July 31st total of 2,030,000 shares. Approximately 4.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 464,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.9 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on CRTO. KeyCorp cut shares of Criteo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Criteo from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson raised shares of Criteo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $58.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Benchmark raised their target price on shares of Criteo from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Criteo from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Criteo

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Criteo

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CRTO. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Criteo by 67.3% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 738 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in Criteo during the first quarter worth $48,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Criteo by 868.1% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,394 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 1,250 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Criteo by 64.1% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,838 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Criteo by 7,011.5% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,849 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 1,823 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.27% of the company’s stock.

Criteo Price Performance

Shares of Criteo stock opened at $47.43 on Friday. Criteo has a fifty-two week low of $22.10 and a fifty-two week high of $49.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.90 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $43.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.36.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The information services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $471.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $263.64 million. Criteo had a net margin of 4.54% and a return on equity of 15.64%. Criteo’s revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.12 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Criteo will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Criteo Company Profile

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.