Direct Digital (NASDAQ:DRCT) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.36 EPS

Direct Digital (NASDAQ:DRCT) issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The company reported ($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.36), Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $41.01 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.02 million. Direct Digital had a return on equity of 48.38% and a net margin of 1.26%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share. Direct Digital updated its FY 2024 guidance to EPS.

Direct Digital Trading Down 39.5 %

DRCT opened at $16.04 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $18.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.00. The company has a market capitalization of $228.89 million, a P/E ratio of 114.57 and a beta of 8.14. Direct Digital has a 52 week low of $1.96 and a 52 week high of $35.88.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Direct Digital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Direct Digital during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. UBS Group AG purchased a new position in Direct Digital in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. State Street Corp purchased a new stake in Direct Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Direct Digital by 31.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,555 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 3,966 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP increased its holdings in shares of Direct Digital by 146.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 28,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 17,095 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 4.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on DRCT. Noble Financial restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Direct Digital in a report on Wednesday. TheStreet lowered Direct Digital from a “c” rating to a “d+” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Benchmark reduced their price target on Direct Digital from $30.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Roth Mkm dropped their price objective on Direct Digital from $27.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $15.83.

About Direct Digital

Direct Digital Holdings, Inc operates as an end-to-end full-service programmatic advertising platform. The company's platform primarily focuses on providing advertising technology, data-driven campaign optimization, and other solutions to underserved and less efficient markets on both the buy- and sell-side of the digital advertising ecosystem.