The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ:FRSH). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 12.15% to 14.0 million shares with purchase of 1.52 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 8.69% valued currently at $209.17 million. In addition, Ward Ferry Management Ltd. raised its holdings by 1.28 million to 12.87 million shares. And Champlain Investment Partners LLC has lifted its position by 12.74% or 0.8 million shares – to 7.07 million shares.
With over 2.33 million Freshworks Inc. (FRSH) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $14.43 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $33.59 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -4.56% and its price on 03/14/23 gained nearly 3.00%. Currently, there are 288.57M common shares owned by the public and among those 158.33M 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: 16 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for FRSH have a consensus price objective of $18.50. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $25.00 and a low of $14.00. The average price target is 22.17% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -3.07% over that period. But an upside of 42.28% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $18.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 129 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 110 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 11,295,845 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 19 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,739,047 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Freshworks Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund, and Advisors Inner Circle II – Champl. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 4.69 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $69.99 million. The company bought an additional 7373.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.91% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 21708.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 3.97 million shares valued at over $59.24 million and representing 2.46% of the shares outstanding. Advisors Inner Circle II – Champl bought 0.34 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.06 million shares at a value of $45.64 million. Advisors Inner Circle II – Champl now owns shares totaling to 1.90% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) opened at $14.00, down -$0.01 from a prior closing price of $14.01. However, the script later moved the day high at 14.53, up 3.00%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -6.96% and -1.97% over the past three months. FRSH shares are trading -1.90% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -16.15% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $10.51 and touched a high of $21.26 over the same period. FRSH has an average intraday trading volume of 1.64 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -5.35%, -6.41%, and 1.03% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) shares accounts for 73.10% of the company’s 288.57M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 24.79%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 41.31% and 17.57% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $4.49B. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$0.81. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 6.03% over the week and 4.34% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Freshworks Inc. (FRSH) will achieve an EPS of -$0.02 for the current quarter, -$0.01 for the next quarter and $0.06 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.02 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$0.01. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$0.01 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 92.10%, and 1200.00% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 16 brokerage firm advisors rate Freshworks Inc. (FRSH) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 6 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 9 of the 16 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the FRSH, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald stated their Overweight rating for the stock in a research note on January 24, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $18. Canaccord Genuity coverage for the Freshworks Inc. (FRSH) stock in a research note released on January 04, 2023 offered a Hold rating with a price target of $15. Wolfe Research was of a view on December 21, 2022 that the stock is Peer Perform, while Credit Suisse gave the stock Neutral rating on November 22, 2022, issuing a price target of $14. Scotiabank on their part issued Sector Perform rating on June 09, 2022.
