LivePerson’s (LPSN) Hold Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their hold rating on shares of LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered LivePerson from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $0.83.

LivePerson Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LPSN opened at $0.86 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.24. The company has a market capitalization of $78.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.56 and a beta of 1.75. LivePerson has a twelve month low of $0.52 and a twelve month high of $2.08. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $0.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.03.

LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The technology company reported ($1.27) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($1.23). The business had revenue of $73.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.12 million. LivePerson had a negative net margin of 18.72% and a negative return on equity of 111.48%. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.06) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that LivePerson will post -0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other LivePerson news, Director Vanessa Pegueros sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $0.90, for a total transaction of $27,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 139,993 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,993.70. The trade was a 17.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Anthony John Sabino sold 166,213 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $0.90, for a total transaction of $149,591.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,920,384 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,628,345.60. This represents a 5.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 310,204 shares of company stock valued at $287,471 in the last three months. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On LivePerson

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LPSN. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of LivePerson during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in LivePerson by 89.9% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 19,006 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 9,000 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in LivePerson in the fourth quarter worth about $57,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in LivePerson in the 4th quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of LivePerson during the 4th quarter valued at about $68,000. Institutional investors own 79.83% of the company’s stock.

About LivePerson

LivePerson, Inc engages in conversational artificial intelligence. It enables brands to leverage the Conversational Cloud's intelligence engine to connect with consumers through an integrated suite of mobile and online business messaging technologies. The company offers the Conversational Cloud, an enterprise-class digital customer conversation platform, which enables businesses and consumers to connect through conversational channels, such as voice, in-app, and mobile messaging.