Short Interest in Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) Decreases By 5.1%

Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,040,000 shares, a decline of 5.1% from the August 31st total of 2,150,000 shares. Currently, 3.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 486,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Criteo Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of CRTO traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $40.24. The company had a trading volume of 191,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 361,918. Criteo has a 1-year low of $22.10 and a 1-year high of $49.93. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.91. The stock has a market cap of $2.28 billion, a PE ratio of 41.48 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Criteo news, CFO Sarah Js Glickman sold 5,496 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.49, for a total value of $250,013.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 320,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,565,943.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Criteo

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cadian Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Criteo by 70.4% during the 4th quarter. Cadian Capital Management LP now owns 4,239,314 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $107,339,000 after purchasing an additional 1,751,511 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Criteo during the second quarter worth approximately $11,059,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in Criteo during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,580,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Criteo by 93.2% in the second quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 107,553 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,057,000 after acquiring an additional 51,870 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Criteo by 523.1% in the 2nd quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC now owns 59,199 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after acquiring an additional 49,699 shares during the period. 94.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CRTO shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Criteo from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson upgraded Criteo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of Criteo from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Criteo from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Criteo from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Criteo has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.11.

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.