Criteo (CRTO) Downgraded to “Hold” at Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning.

According to Zacks, “Criteo SA is a global technology company that specializes in performance display advertising. The Company offers clients a range of solutions such as click per cost, online banner displays, user optimization, data security, and search management tools to control campaign costs. It serves companies in the online retail, classifieds, and travel segments. Criteo SA is headquartered in Paris, France. “

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on CRTO. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Criteo from $25.00 to $24.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 1st. Berenberg Bank set a $42.00 target price on shares of Criteo and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, November 2nd. BidaskClub raised shares of Criteo from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Saturday, December 15th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Criteo from $28.00 to $27.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 1st. Finally, Pivotal Research lowered their target price on shares of Criteo from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Criteo currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $31.60.

Shares of Criteo stock opened at $23.10 on Tuesday. Criteo has a 1 year low of $19.13 and a 1 year high of $36.66. The company has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.17, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.49.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 31st. The information services provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.06. Criteo had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 4.50%. The firm had revenue of $223.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $222.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Criteo will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In related news, CEO Jean-Baptiste Rudelle acquired 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 29th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $23.42 per share, with a total value of $515,240.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.32% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Criteo during the 2nd quarter valued at $249,000. Regal Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 46.6% during the 3rd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,340 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $214,000 after buying an additional 2,968 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 58.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Criteo during the 2nd quarter valued at $366,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 100.2% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,268 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $469,000 after buying an additional 7,141 shares during the period. 81.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Criteo

Criteo SA, a technology company, engages in digital performance marketing in France and internationally. The company’s Criteo Shopper Graph, which collects clients’ proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties. Its Criteo Engine solutions include recommendation algorithms that create tailored advertisements to specific customer interest by determining the specific products and services to include in the advertisement; predictive bidding algorithms that predict the probability and nature of a user’s engagement with a given advertisement; and bidding engine for executing campaigns based on objectives set by the clients.