Morgan Stanley Initiates Coverage on Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD)

Equities researchers at Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm set an “equal weight” rating and a $33.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.47% from the stock’s current price.

RPD has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Rapid7 from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Rapid7 from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Rapid7 from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays cut their price objective on Rapid7 from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Rapid7 from $43.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Rapid7 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.50.

Rapid7 Price Performance

Shares of Rapid7 stock opened at $29.34 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.23 and a beta of 0.92. Rapid7 has a 52-week low of $26.77 and a 52-week high of $51.99. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.70.

Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.38). Rapid7 had a net margin of 3.46% and a negative return on equity of 130.41%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Rapid7 will post 0.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Corey E. Thomas sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.38, for a total value of $3,938,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 431,469 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,991,249.22. The trade was a 18.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rapid7

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Rapid7 by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,487 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Rapid7 by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 69,154 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,782,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ lifted its stake in shares of Rapid7 by 68.8% during the fourth quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 1,116 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares during the period. Ostrum Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Rapid7 by 45.3% during the fourth quarter. Ostrum Asset Management now owns 2,478 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $100,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Rapid7 by 47.7% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,686 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 867 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

Rapid7 Company Profile

Rapid7, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions under the Rapid7, Nexpose, and Metasploit brand names. The company offers endpoint to cloud data collection and sharing applications, such as Rapid7 Insight Agent, a software-based agent that is used on assets across on-premises and cloud environments to centralize and monitor data on company's platform; Rapid7 Insight Network Sensor that analyzes raw end-to-end network traffic to increase visibility into user activity, pinpoint real threats, and investigations; Rapid7 Cloud Event Data Harvesting that offers visibility into changes made to cloud resources; and third-party integrations and ecosystem, as well as orchestration and automation solutions.