Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) was upgraded by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $280.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $260.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 36.51% from the company’s previous close.

CVNA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Carvana from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Wedbush set a $250.00 target price on shares of Carvana and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Carvana from $280.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Carvana from $270.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Carvana in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $263.88.

Carvana Stock Down 7.5 %

Carvana stock opened at $205.12 on Tuesday. Carvana has a fifty-two week low of $67.61 and a fifty-two week high of $292.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.82, a current ratio of 3.64 and a quick ratio of 2.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 130.65 and a beta of 3.56. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $228.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $216.50.

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.32 billion. Carvana had a net margin of 1.54% and a return on equity of 36.59%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Carvana will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Carvana news, insider Paul W. Breaux sold 1,362 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.08, for a total value of $367,848.96. Following the sale, the insider now owns 153,240 shares in the company, valued at $41,387,059.20. This represents a 0.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Thomas Taira sold 27,593 shares of Carvana stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.03, for a total value of $6,209,252.79. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 179,673 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,431,815.19. This represents a 13.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 197,377 shares of company stock valued at $44,251,096 in the last 90 days. 17.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Carvana

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Carvana by 90.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,361,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,152,311,000 after purchasing an additional 5,882,656 shares during the last quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Carvana in the 3rd quarter valued at about $162,953,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Carvana in the 4th quarter valued at about $179,364,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Carvana by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,425,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,323,463,000 after acquiring an additional 610,234 shares during the period. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new stake in Carvana during the fourth quarter worth approximately $116,020,000. Institutional investors own 56.71% of the company’s stock.

Carvana Company Profile

Carvana Co, together with its subsidiaries, operates an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars in the United States. Its platform allows customers to research and identify a vehicle; inspect it using company's 360-degree vehicle imaging technology; obtain financing and warranty coverage; purchase the vehicle; and schedule delivery or pick-up from their desktop or mobile devices.