KeyCorp Reiterates “Hold” Rating on New Relic

Investment analysts at KeyCorp reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of New Relic, Inc. (NYSE: NEWR) in a research note published on Wednesday, August 7, 2019, according to TipRanks.

Broader Analyst Coverage

KeyCorp’s reiterating of the hold rating came amid a flurry of analyst activity around the same period:

• Zacks Investment Research upgraded New Relic from “sell” to “hold” on July 17, 2019.
• Needham & Company LLC maintained a “buy” rating and set a price target of $120.00 on August 7, 2019.
• Oppenheimer lowered its price target from $125.00 to $109.00 while retaining an “outperform” rating on August 7, 2019.
• ValuEngine downgraded New Relic from “buy” to “hold” on August 8, 2019.
• Morgan Stanley cut its price target from $115.00 to $104.00 while keeping an “overweight” rating on August 7, 2019.

Across all tracked analysts at the time, one had assigned a sell rating, seven had issued hold ratings, and ten had given buy ratings. The consensus rating stood at “Buy” with an average price target of $99.07.

Stock Performance and Key Metrics

As of the trading session referenced in the report, NEWR shares rose $1.50 to reach $58.50. Trading volume came in at 1,447,334 shares, below the average daily volume of approximately 1,842,761 shares.

Quarterly Earnings Results

New Relic reported its fiscal quarter earnings on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. Key highlights included:

• EPS: ($0.16), beating the Zacks consensus estimate of ($0.18) by $0.02.
• Revenue: $141.01 million, slightly above analyst estimates of $139.73 million.
• Year-over-year revenue growth: 30.3%.
• Net margin: -9.93%.
• Return on equity: -8.55%.
• Prior-year quarter EPS: $0.15 (profitable).

Analysts were collectively forecasting full-year EPS of -$0.68 for the then-current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions

Several notable insider sales were disclosed to the SEC during the period:

• CEO Lewis Cirne sold 19,500 shares on June 4, 2019, at an average price of $97.72 per share, totaling approximately $1,905,540.
• CFO Mark Sachleben sold 15,000 shares on June 18, 2019, at an average price of $96.98 per share, totaling approximately $1,454,700.

In aggregate, insiders sold 133,904 shares valued at approximately $11,498,947 during the preceding quarter. Company insiders held approximately 17.40% of outstanding shares at the time.

Institutional Ownership Activity

A number of institutional investors adjusted their New Relic positions in the first and second quarters of 2019:

• Cornerstone Advisors Inc. increased its position by 58.4% in Q1 2019, holding 358 shares valued at approximately $35,000.
• Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its stake by 5.9% in Q2 2019, holding 2,661 shares valued at approximately $230,000.
• Nvwm LLC raised its position by 4.1% in Q2 2019, holding 4,869 shares valued at approximately $421,000.
• Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings by 8.6% in Q2 2019, holding 2,516 shares valued at approximately $218,000.
• Flinton Capital Management LLC expanded its stake by 51.9% in Q2 2019, holding 656 shares valued at approximately $57,000.

Collectively, hedge funds and other institutional investors owned approximately 74.72% of New Relic’s outstanding shares at the time of the report.

About New Relic

New Relic, Inc. is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that provides cloud-based observability and digital intelligence products to organizations worldwide. Its platform enables teams to collect, store, and analyze telemetry data across their software stacks. Core product offerings included:

• New Relic APM (Application Performance Management): Delivers code-level visibility into server-based application performance, including response times, transaction throughput, error rates, and user satisfaction scores.
• New Relic Mobile: Monitors the performance and health of iOS and Android mobile applications at the code level.
• New Relic Browser: Tracks real-user page view experiences for desktop and mobile browser-based applications.

Source: rivertonroll.com (original syndicated report, August 2019). All financial data reflects conditions as of the report date and should not be interpreted as current.