Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Udemy, Inc. (NASDAQ:UDMY) shares gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $5.37, but opened at $7.07. Udemy shares last traded at $6.8070, with a volume of 11,197,101 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on UDMY shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Udemy from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Zacks Research cut shares of Udemy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of Udemy in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Udemy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Udemy in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $9.63.

Udemy Stock Up 23.0%

The firm has a market capitalization of $966.82 million, a P/E ratio of -220.06 and a beta of 1.74. The business’s 50 day moving average is $5.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $6.57.

Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.03. Udemy had a negative net margin of 0.47% and a positive return on equity of 2.11%. The firm had revenue of $195.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.09 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.07 EPS. Udemy’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Udemy, Inc. will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Udemy announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, September 10th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Udemy news, CFO Sarah Blanchard sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.25, for a total transaction of $131,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,208,046 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,342,241.50. This trade represents a 2.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Udemy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of UDMY. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Udemy by 3.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,895,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,388,000 after acquiring an additional 436,984 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Udemy by 70.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,474,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,854,550 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Udemy by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,313,651 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,267,000 after purchasing an additional 81,599 shares in the last quarter. Westerly Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Udemy in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $15,878,000. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its stake in shares of Udemy by 56.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,786,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,522,000 after purchasing an additional 646,755 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.48% of the company’s stock.

About Udemy

Udemy, Inc, a learning company, that operates a marketplace platform for learning skills in the United States and internationally. The company offers skill acquisition, development, and validation courses for organizations and individuals, through direct-to-consumer or Udemy Business offerings in various languages.