Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) Short Interest Up 26.1% in July

Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,400,000 shares, an increase of 26.1% from the June 30th total of 1,110,000 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 422,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ryan Damon sold 946 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.99, for a total value of $36,884.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 153,623 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,989,760.77. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Megan Clarken sold 3,894 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.99, for a total value of $151,827.06. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 533,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,789,545.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ryan Damon sold 946 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.99, for a total value of $36,884.54. Following the sale, the insider now owns 153,623 shares in the company, valued at $5,989,760.77. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 41,664 shares of company stock worth $1,616,411. Corporate insiders own 1.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Criteo

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CRTO. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Criteo by 7,011.5% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,849 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 1,823 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Criteo in the second quarter valued at approximately $248,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Criteo by 64.0% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $566,000 after buying an additional 5,854 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Criteo by 67.3% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 738 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Criteo during the first quarter valued at approximately $424,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.27% of the company’s stock.

Criteo Price Performance

Criteo stock traded down $0.70 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $43.38. 140,772 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 333,574. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.97. Criteo has a fifty-two week low of $22.10 and a fifty-two week high of $46.33. The stock has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.44 and a beta of 0.99.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The information services provider reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.14. Criteo had a net margin of 2.96% and a return on equity of 12.33%. The company had revenue of $253.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $246.10 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Criteo will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRTO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Criteo in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Criteo from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Friday, May 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Criteo from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Criteo from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, KeyCorp cut Criteo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.33.

Criteo Company Profile

Criteo SA, a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties.