PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) Shares Gap Up After Better-Than-Expected Earnings

PagerDuty, Inc. (NYSE:PD)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $15.61, but opened at $16.52. PagerDuty shares last traded at $18.00, with a volume of 1,083,862 shares.

The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $121.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.53 million. PagerDuty had a negative return on equity of 22.02% and a negative net margin of 16.29%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.17 EPS.

PagerDuty announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 13th that authorizes the company to repurchase $150.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on PD. Bank of America cut shares of PagerDuty from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $23.00 to $18.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on PagerDuty from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $21.00 price target on shares of PagerDuty in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.64.

Insider Transactions at PagerDuty

In related news, CEO Jennifer Tejada sold 1,569 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total transaction of $31,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 868,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,366,220. The trade was a 0.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Shelley Webb sold 7,879 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.19, for a total value of $143,319.01. Following the sale, the insider now owns 199,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,622,029.18. The trade was a 3.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 10,048 shares of company stock worth $186,699. 7.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PagerDuty

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PD. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in PagerDuty in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Quarry LP grew its position in PagerDuty by 98.3% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 1,384 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new stake in PagerDuty during the fourth quarter worth about $58,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in PagerDuty by 63.7% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 4,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 1,594 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in PagerDuty in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $130,000. Institutional investors own 97.26% of the company’s stock.

PagerDuty Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.55 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97.

About PagerDuty

PagerDuty, Inc engages in the operation of a digital operations management platform in the United States and internationally. The company’s digital operations management platform collects data and digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device and leverage machine learning to correlate, process, and predict opportunities and issues.