Taking on analysts’ expectations and winning: Yext Inc. (YEXT)

Yext Inc. (NYSE: YEXT) stock fell -1.27% on Monday to $6.23 against a previous-day closing price of $6.31. With 0.96 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 1.44 million shares. The 52-week range on YEXT shows that it touched its highest point at $14.35 and its lowest point at $4.03 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $10.83. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.21.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of YEXT was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -7.15%, but this was down by -27.56% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -51.85% while six-month performance fell -32.06%. The stock gained 22.88% in the past year, while it has lost -4.59% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for YEXT yields -0.19 with Next year EPS estimates of 0.32. For the next quarter, that number is 0.07. This implies an EPS growth rate of 27.80% for this year and 12.77% for next year.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 124.36 million YEXT shares are outstanding with a float of 101.23 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 3.67 million, which was 2.95% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Michael Walrath as the firm’s CEO & Chairman, Mr. Marc Ferrentino serves as its Pres & COO.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 69.80% of YEXT’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 33.20% of YEXT, in contrast to 32.54% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 32.48%. As the largest shareholder in YEXT with 11.94% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 14,812,202 shares worth 14,812,202. A second-largest stockholder of YEXT, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 7,072,186 shares, controlling over 5.70% of the firm’s shares. D. E. Shaw & Co. LP is the third largest shareholder in YEXT, holding 4,803,552 shares or 3.87% stake. With a 2.56% stake in YEXT, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 3,172,438 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund, which owns about 2.09% of YEXT stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 2,596,125 shares valued at 22.74 million. John Hancock Small Cap Core Fund holds 1.97% of the stake in YEXT, owning 2,441,013 shares worth 21.38 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for YEXT since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With YEXT analysts setting a high price target of $12.50 and a low target of $9.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $10.83. Based on these targets, YEXT could surge 100.64% to reach the target high and rise by 44.46% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 73.84% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded YEXT stock several times over the past three months with 15 Buys and 5 Sells. In these transactions, 161,315 shares were bought while 72,771 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 86 while that of sell transactions has risen to 22 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 1,011,112 while 383,161 shares were sold.