Short Interest in Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN) Rises By 7.8%

Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,230,000 shares, a growth of 7.8% from the August 31st total of 9,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.6 days. Approximately 12.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Eleanor B. Lacey sold 4,977 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.79, for a total transaction of $58,678.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 370,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,366,226.07. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Asana news, CFO Tim M. Wan sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total transaction of $150,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,050,284 shares in the company, valued at $15,754,260. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Eleanor B. Lacey sold 4,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.79, for a total transaction of $58,678.83. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 370,333 shares in the company, valued at $4,366,226.07. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 59,092 shares of company stock valued at $752,668 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 63.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Asana

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASAN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Asana during the 4th quarter worth $7,500,000. Ghisallo Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Asana in the fourth quarter worth about $3,731,000. Berylson Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Asana by 129.8% in the fourth quarter. Berylson Capital Partners LLC now owns 108,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,053,000 after buying an additional 61,000 shares in the last quarter. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Asana during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,246,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Asana during the 4th quarter worth approximately $881,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on ASAN. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Asana from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Asana from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Asana in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Asana from $17.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Asana from $14.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Asana has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.67.

Asana Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ASAN opened at $11.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of -10.03 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $13.07 and a 200-day moving average of $13.89. Asana has a 52-week low of $11.05 and a 52-week high of $23.44.

Asana (NYSE:ASAN) last announced its quarterly 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 analyst estimates 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 was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.31) earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Asana will post -1.14 EPS for the current year.

Asana announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, June 20th that allows the company to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership 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.