Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Asana, Inc. (NYSE:ASAN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,230,000 shares, a growth of 7.8% from the August 31st total of 9,490,000 shares. Approximately 12.5% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Tim M. Wan sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total transaction of $75,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,063,909 shares in the company, valued at $15,958,635. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Tim M. Wan sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total value of $75,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,063,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,958,635. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Anne Raimondi sold 29,807 shares of Asana stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.99, for a total transaction of $357,385.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 761,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,125,445.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 59,092 shares of company stock valued at $752,668. Company insiders own 63.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Asana

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Asana by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,326,145 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,462,000 after acquiring an additional 490,823 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Asana by 26.9% during the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 4,032,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,456,000 after acquiring an additional 854,355 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Asana by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,782,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,891,000 after acquiring an additional 235,135 shares during the last quarter. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC acquired a new stake in Asana in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,246,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Asana in the second quarter worth $17,100,000. 26.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Asana Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of ASAN stock opened at $11.18 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of -9.55 and a beta of 1.16. Asana has a 52-week low of $11.05 and a 52-week high of $23.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63.

Asana (NYSE:ASAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $179.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $177.68 million. Asana had a negative net margin of 37.73% and a negative return on equity of 81.88%. The business’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.31) EPS. On average, analysts predict that Asana will post -1.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Asana declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, June 20th that permits the company to buyback $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASAN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Asana from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. JMP Securities cut their price objective on shares of Asana from $27.00 to $21.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $10.00 target price on shares of Asana in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 price target (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Asana in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Asana from $17.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.67.

About Asana

Asana, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a work management platform for individuals, team leads, and executives in the United States and internationally. Its platform helps organizations to orchestrate work from daily tasks to cross-functional strategic initiatives; manage work across a portfolio of projects or workflows, see progress against goals, identify bottlenecks, resource constraints, and milestones; and communicate company-wide goals, monitor status, and oversee work across projects and portfolios to gain real-time insights.