Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Sunday morning.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Pinterest from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Pinterest in a research report on Friday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Pinterest from $46.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Pinterest from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pinterest has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.40.

Pinterest Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of PINS opened at $35.85 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $36.21 and its 200 day moving average is $33.21. Pinterest has a 12-month low of $23.68 and a 12-month high of $40.90. The stock has a market cap of $24.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.78.

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $998.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $973.42 million. Pinterest had a net margin of 49.31% and a return on equity of 8.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Pinterest will post 0.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pinterest news, Director Benjamin Silbermann sold 102,083 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.13, for a total transaction of $3,279,926.79. Following the sale, the director owned 6,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $201,583.62. The trade was a 94.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,094,279 shares of company stock valued at $38,062,654. 7.11% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pinterest

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PINS. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Pinterest in the 4th quarter worth about $252,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Pinterest by 89.9% in the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 693,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,119,000 after acquiring an additional 328,452 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP grew its stake in Pinterest by 69.2% during the fourth quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 14,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 6,074 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Pinterest by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,754,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,878,000 after acquiring an additional 144,498 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis boosted its holdings in Pinterest by 59.3% in the 4th quarter. Natixis now owns 27,006 shares of the company’s stock valued at $783,000 after purchasing an additional 10,054 shares during the period. 88.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Pinterest

Pinterest, Inc operates as a visual search and discovery platform in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows people to find ideas, such as recipes, home and style inspiration, and others; and to search, save, and shop the ideas. The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc in April 2012.