Citigroup Upgrades Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) to “Buy”

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) was upgraded by investment analysts at Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm currently has a $277.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $195.00. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 39.43% from the stock’s current price.

CVNA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Carvana from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Carvana from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Carvana from $160.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Carvana from $151.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Carvana from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.94.

Carvana Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CVNA opened at $198.67 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $41.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 19,886.89 and a beta of 3.38. Carvana has a 12 month low of $40.21 and a 12 month high of $268.34. The business’s 50 day moving average is $236.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.59. The company has a quick ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 3.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.99.

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.47 billion. Carvana’s quarterly revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Carvana will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Carvana news, insider Ryan S. Keeton sold 24,845 shares of Carvana stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.90, for a total transaction of $6,159,075.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 151,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,440,089.10. The trade was a 14.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Mark W. Jenkins sold 208,495 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.43, for a total value of $46,792,532.85. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 90,732 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,362,982.76. This represents a 69.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,051,908 shares of company stock valued at $218,824,285 over the last three months. Insiders own 17.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Carvana

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC grew 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 in the last quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP grew its holdings in shares of Carvana by 1.4% in the second quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 3,776,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $486,143,000 after purchasing an additional 52,833 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Carvana by 6.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,877,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $326,893,000 after acquiring an additional 107,610 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Carvana by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,803,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,133,000 after buying an additional 131,059 shares during the period. Finally, Whale Rock Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Carvana during the 3rd quarter worth about $162,953,000. 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.