Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Carvana (NYSE:CVNA)

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $340.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 80.67% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on CVNA. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Carvana from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wedbush set a $250.00 price objective on Carvana and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Carvana from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of Carvana in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Carvana from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.94.

Carvana Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:CVNA opened at $188.19 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.64, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.82. The firm has a market cap of $40.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.86 and a beta of 3.56. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $231.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $213.28. Carvana has a 12-month low of $67.61 and a 12-month high of $292.84.

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.27. Carvana had a net margin of 1.54% and a return on equity of 36.59%. The business had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.32 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Carvana will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Carvana

In related news, Director Ira J. Platt sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $244.30, for a total value of $6,107,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,276,956.10. This represents a 82.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Mark W. Jenkins sold 28,422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.85, for a total transaction of $8,209,694.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 219,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,536,023.70. This represents a 11.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 119,629 shares of company stock valued at $30,866,419. Insiders own 17.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Carvana by 90.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,361,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,152,311,000 after acquiring an additional 5,882,656 shares in the last quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Carvana in the 3rd quarter worth about $162,953,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Carvana in the 4th quarter valued at about $179,364,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Carvana by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,425,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,323,463,000 after buying an additional 610,234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new stake in Carvana during the fourth quarter worth about $116,020,000. Institutional investors own 56.71% of the company’s stock.

About Carvana

Carvana Co, together with its subsidiaries, operates an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars in the United States. Its platform allows customers to research and identify a vehicle; inspect it using company's 360-degree vehicle imaging technology; obtain financing and warranty coverage; purchase the vehicle; and schedule delivery or pick-up from their desktop or mobile devices.