BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Cepton Inc. (NASDAQ:CPTN). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 347.51% to 2.19 million shares with purchase of 1.7 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 1.40% valued currently at $2.28 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 31399.0 to 2.18 million shares. And SSgA Funds Management, Inc. has lifted its position by 11.81% or 86637.0 shares – to 0.82 million shares.
With over 4.54 million Cepton Inc. (CPTN) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $0.42 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $1.91 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -75.14% and its price on 03/10/23 lost nearly -45.75%. Currently, there are 155.69M common shares owned by the public and among those 58.12M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for CPTN have a consensus price objective of $3.44. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $4.00 and a low of $2.00. The average price target is 87.79% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 79.0% over that period. But an upside of 89.5% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $3.88.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 17 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 10 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 2,030,769 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 7 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,006,038 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Cepton Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, iShares Russell 2000 ETF, and Fidelity Small Cap Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 1.75 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.82 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF sold 2808.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 0.89 million shares valued at over $0.92 million and representing 0.57% of the shares outstanding. Fidelity Small Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 0.25% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Cepton Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTN) opened at $0.761, down -$0.01 from a prior closing price of $0.77. However, the script later moved the day high at 0.7620, down -45.75%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -56.13% and -67.37% over the past three months. CPTN shares are trading -67.11% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -94.84% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $0.75 and touched a high of $8.10 over the same period. CPTN has an average intraday trading volume of 311.85K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -60.60%, -64.14%, and -73.76% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Cepton Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTN) shares accounts for 6.10% of the company’s 155.69M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 27.56%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 3.14% and 2.89% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $120.41M. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$0.11. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 24.57% over the week and 9.70% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Cepton Inc. (CPTN) will achieve an EPS of -$0.1 for the current quarter, -$0.1 for the next quarter and -$0.41 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.11 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$0.09. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -89.70%, and -612.50% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate Cepton Inc. (CPTN) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 3 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Northland Capital coverage for the Cepton Inc. (CPTN) stock in a research note released on June 29, 2022 offered a Outperform rating with a price target of $5.50. RBC Capital Mkts was of a view on March 22, 2022 that the stock is Sector Perform, while Craig Hallum gave the stock Buy rating on March 16, 2022, issuing a price target of $19. Maxim Group on their part issued Buy rating on February 23, 2022.
