Morgan Stanley Initiates Coverage on Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD)

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an equal weight rating and a $33.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on RPD. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Rapid7 from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Rapid7 from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Rapid7 from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Rapid7 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Rapid7 from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.50.

Rapid7 Stock Performance

RPD opened at $28.35 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.69 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.63. Rapid7 has a one year low of $26.77 and a one year high of $51.89.

Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) last released its earnings results 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 net margin of 3.46% and a negative return on equity of 130.41%. As a group, analysts predict that Rapid7 will post 0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Rapid7 news, CEO Corey E. Thomas sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.38, for a total transaction of $3,938,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 2.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Rapid7

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ boosted its stake in shares of Rapid7 by 68.8% during the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 1,116 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Rapid7 by 30.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,487 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Rapid7 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $69,000. Ostrum Asset Management lifted its stake in Rapid7 by 45.3% in the 4th quarter. Ostrum Asset Management now owns 2,478 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $100,000 after buying an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Rapid7 by 47.7% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,686 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 867 shares in the last quarter. 95.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Rapid7

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.