SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) Sets New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

SolarWinds Co. (NYSE:SWI) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $14.74 and last traded at $14.71, with a volume of 158559 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $14.41.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of SolarWinds from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of SolarWinds in a research report on Friday, September 13th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $13.00 target price on the stock. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, SolarWinds currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.00.

SolarWinds Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.50 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $13.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The software maker reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $200.03 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $194.03 million. SolarWinds had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 7.96%. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that SolarWinds Co. will post 0.74 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at SolarWinds

In related news, insider Jason Bliss sold 135,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.02, for a total transaction of $1,757,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 838,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,921,032.78. The trade was a 13.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna sold 200,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.68, for a total value of $2,736,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,212,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,262,499.28. This represents a 8.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 351,000 shares of company stock worth $4,703,780. Insiders own 1.95% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of SolarWinds

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of SolarWinds by 8.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,776,309 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $69,603,000 after buying an additional 461,061 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of SolarWinds by 57.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,193,026 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $28,619,000 after acquiring an additional 800,467 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in SolarWinds by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,290,044 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $16,839,000 after buying an additional 16,730 shares during the last quarter. Scalar Gauge Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of SolarWinds by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Scalar Gauge Management LLC now owns 834,060 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,050,000 after purchasing an additional 85,000 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of SolarWinds by 48.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 825,829 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $9,869,000 after buying an additional 269,578 shares during the period. 93.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SolarWinds Company Profile

SolarWinds Corporation provides information technology (IT) management software products in the United States and internationally. It provides a suite of network management software that offers real-time visibility into network utilization and bandwidth, as well as the ability to detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance problems; and a suite of infrastructure management products, which monitors and analyzes the performance of applications and their supporting infrastructure, including servers, physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure, storage, and databases.