DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN) Raised to “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley

DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN) was upgraded by Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm presently has a $41.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $40.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 13.58% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also commented on DOCN. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on shares of DigitalOcean from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of DigitalOcean in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of DigitalOcean from $38.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of DigitalOcean from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of DigitalOcean from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, DigitalOcean has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.70.

DigitalOcean Stock Performance

DOCN opened at $36.10 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.90 and a 200-day moving average of $37.17. The company has a market capitalization of $3.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.47, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.78. DigitalOcean has a 1-year low of $26.63 and a 1-year high of $44.80.

DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.12. DigitalOcean had a net margin of 10.86% and a negative return on equity of 43.11%. The company had revenue of $198.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.17 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that DigitalOcean will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Bratin Saha sold 3,468 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.18, for a total value of $132,408.24. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 379,795 shares in the company, valued at $14,500,573.10. The trade was a 0.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Matt Steinfort sold 12,498 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total transaction of $499,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 517,498 shares in the company, valued at $20,699,920. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 32,955 shares of company stock worth $1,258,373. 0.74% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of DigitalOcean

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of DigitalOcean by 380.0% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 720 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of DigitalOcean by 20.2% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,845 shares of the company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,990 shares in the last quarter. JTC Employer Solutions Trustee Ltd bought a new stake in shares of DigitalOcean in the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of DigitalOcean by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 267,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,196,000 after acquiring an additional 11,481 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of DigitalOcean by 10.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,301,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,568,000 after acquiring an additional 122,651 shares during the period. 49.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

DigitalOcean Company Profile

DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates a cloud computing platform in North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. The company’s platform provides on-demand infrastructure and platform tools for developers, start-ups, and small and growing digital businesses. It also offers infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions comprising compute and storage services, as well as networking projects, including Cloud Firewalls software, Managed Load Balancers software, and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).