Morgan Stanley Begins Coverage on Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD)

Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday. The firm set an “equal weight” rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Rapid7 from $43.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Rapid7 from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Rapid7 from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Rapid7 from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Rapid7 from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.22.

Rapid7 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ RPD traded down $0.57 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $28.53. 46,039 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 822,463. Rapid7 has a fifty-two week low of $26.77 and a fifty-two week high of $51.99. The firm has a market cap of $1.83 billion, a PE ratio of 72.63 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.82.

Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.38). Rapid7 had a negative return on equity of 130.41% and a net margin of 3.46%. As a group, analysts predict that Rapid7 will post 0.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Corey E. Thomas sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.38, for a total transaction of $3,938,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 431,469 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,991,249.22. This trade represents a 18.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Shapiro Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Rapid7 by 295.9% in the 4th quarter. Shapiro Capital Management LLC now owns 1,290,945 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $51,935,000 after purchasing an additional 964,899 shares during the last quarter. Estuary Capital Management LP bought a new position in Rapid7 during the fourth quarter valued at about $20,714,000. Dendur Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Rapid7 in the fourth quarter worth about $19,190,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Rapid7 during the 4th quarter worth about $12,050,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in shares of Rapid7 by 144.2% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 475,695 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $19,137,000 after acquiring an additional 280,913 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

Rapid7 Company Profile

Rapid7, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions under the Rapid7, Nexpose, and Metasploit brand names. The company offers endpoint to cloud data collection and sharing applications, such as Rapid7 Insight Agent, a software-based agent that is used on assets across on-premises and cloud environments to centralize and monitor data on company's platform; Rapid7 Insight Network Sensor that analyzes raw end-to-end network traffic to increase visibility into user activity, pinpoint real threats, and investigations; Rapid7 Cloud Event Data Harvesting that offers visibility into changes made to cloud resources; and third-party integrations and ecosystem, as well as orchestration and automation solutions.