Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR)

Smartsheet Inc (NYSE:SMAR) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 9,585 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 393% compared to the typical volume of 1,944 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Stephen Robert Branstetter sold 1,847 shares of Smartsheet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $97,891.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 64,215 shares in the company, valued at $3,403,395. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Patrick Mader sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.78, for a total transaction of $1,035,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 588,762 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,486,096.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Stephen Robert Branstetter sold 1,847 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $97,891.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 64,215 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,403,395. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,429 shares of company stock worth $1,952,525 over the last three months. 4.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smartsheet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Smartsheet by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,809,208 shares of the company’s stock valued at $531,655,000 after buying an additional 225,390 shares during the last quarter. Eminence Capital LP boosted its holdings in shares of Smartsheet by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 4,251,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $187,399,000 after buying an additional 358,988 shares during the last quarter. Dorsal Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Smartsheet by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Dorsal Capital Management LP now owns 3,225,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,220,000 after buying an additional 125,000 shares during the last quarter. RGM Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Smartsheet by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. RGM Capital LLC now owns 2,223,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,023,000 after buying an additional 156,817 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Smartsheet by 40.9% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,835,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,931,000 after buying an additional 533,278 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Smartsheet Price Performance

NYSE:SMAR traded up $3.38 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $55.47. 17,914,033 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,623,003. Smartsheet has a twelve month low of $35.52 and a twelve month high of $55.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $48.76 and a 200 day moving average of $43.25. The stock has a market cap of $7.67 billion, a PE ratio of -89.16 and a beta of 0.74.

Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.15. Smartsheet had a negative return on equity of 4.29% and a negative net margin of 4.07%. The firm had revenue of $276.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $274.23 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.23) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Smartsheet will post -0.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Smartsheet declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 5th that permits the company to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 2.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SMAR. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Smartsheet from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Smartsheet from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Smartsheet from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Smartsheet in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price on shares of Smartsheet in a research report on Friday, September 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.06.

About Smartsheet

Smartsheet, Inc engages in managing and automating collaborative work. Its platform provides solutions that eliminate the obstacles to capturing information, including a familiar and intuitive spreadsheet interface as well as easily customizable forms. The company was founded by W. Eric Browne, Maria Colacurcio, John D.