Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Carvana Co. (NYSE:CVNA)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $60.00 to $65.00. The stock had previously closed at $69.16, but opened at $71.75. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Carvana shares last traded at $70.50, with a volume of 823,364 shares changing hands.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CVNA. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Carvana from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Carvana from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Carvana from $78.00 to $77.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Carvana in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Carvana from $32.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.87.

Insider Buying and Selling at Carvana

In other Carvana news, major shareholder Ernest C. Garcia II sold 50,000 shares of Carvana stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.13, for a total value of $4,006,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,312,500 shares in the company, valued at $265,430,625. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Ernest C. Garcia II sold 50,000 shares of Carvana stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.13, for a total value of $4,006,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 3,312,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,430,625. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Thomas Taira sold 4,197 shares of Carvana stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.84, for a total transaction of $347,679.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 164,827 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,654,268.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 187,883 shares of company stock worth $15,505,178 over the last ninety days. 17.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Carvana

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. bought a new position in shares of Carvana in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in Carvana by 270.9% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,324 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares during the period. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. bought a new position in Carvana during the third quarter worth $34,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in Carvana by 39.0% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 692 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Carvana by 14,831.6% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 8,454 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 56.71% of the company’s stock.

Carvana Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.34. The stock has a market cap of $14.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 132.21 and a beta of 3.32.

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported ($1.00) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.95) by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.97) EPS. Carvana’s quarterly revenue was down 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Carvana Co. will post -3.4 earnings per share for the current year.

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.