DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN) Shares Gap Up - Time to Buy?

DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DOCN - Get Free Report) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $34.24, but opened at $35.85. DigitalOcean shares last traded at $36.30, with a volume of 152,107 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of DigitalOcean from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the company from $40.00 to $41.00 in a report on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of DigitalOcean from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on DigitalOcean from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on DigitalOcean from $38.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of DigitalOcean in a report on Friday. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $39.00 price target for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $41.70.

DigitalOcean Stock Performance

The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $36.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.17. The firm has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.78.

DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.12. DigitalOcean had a negative return on equity of 43.11% and a net margin of 10.86%. The business had revenue of $198.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.17 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at DigitalOcean

In other DigitalOcean news, insider Bratin Saha sold 3,468 shares of DigitalOcean stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.18, for a total transaction of $132,408.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 379,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,500,573.10. This trade represents a 0.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Matt Steinfort sold 12,498 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total value of $499,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 517,498 shares in the company, valued at $20,699,920. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,955 shares of company stock worth $1,258,373. Company insiders own 0.74% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DigitalOcean

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DOCN. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in DigitalOcean in the second quarter valued at $877,000. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in DigitalOcean in the 3rd quarter worth about $751,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board purchased a new position in DigitalOcean during the second quarter worth approximately $4,108,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. acquired a new stake in DigitalOcean in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,712,000. Finally, FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of DigitalOcean in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,149,000. 49.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates a cloud computing platform in North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. The company's platform provides on-demand infrastructure and platform tools for developers, start-ups, and small and growing digital businesses. It also offers infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions comprising compute and storage services, as well as networking projects, including Cloud Firewalls software, Managed Load Balancers software, and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).