North Dakota State Investment Board Buys New Position in Spotify Technology $SPOT

North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new stake in Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 5,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,145,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Spotify Technology by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 682,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $476,483,000 after purchasing an additional 177,310 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Spotify Technology by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 645,196 shares of the company’s stock valued at $374,672,000 after purchasing an additional 73,722 shares in the last quarter. Truxt Investmentos Ltda. bought a new position in shares of Spotify Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,093,000. Ownership Capital B.V. bought a new position in shares of Spotify Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,769,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Spotify Technology by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,005,882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $702,106,000 after purchasing an additional 24,199 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Spotify Technology from $600.00 to $500.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Spotify Technology from $670.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Pivotal Research reduced their price objective on shares of Spotify Technology from $420.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup raised shares of Spotify Technology from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Spotify Technology in a research note on Monday, April 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $630.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $645.77.

Spotify Technology Price Performance

NYSE SPOT opened at $444.28 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $485.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $528.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $91.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.55. Spotify Technology has a 52-week low of $405.00 and a 52-week high of $785.00.

Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $4.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.41 by $0.63. The business had revenue of $5.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.23 billion. Spotify Technology had a net margin of 15.56% and a return on equity of 35.73%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.07 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Spotify Technology will post 14.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Gustav Soderstrom sold 20,833 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.72, for a total value of $8,973,189.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 20,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,826,314.24. This represents a 50.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Alex Norstrom sold 5,436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $479.51, for a total transaction of $2,606,616.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 69,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,560,425.39. The trade was a 7.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 47,102 shares of company stock valued at $21,444,648 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Spotify Technology Company Profile

Spotify Technology is a digital audio streaming company best known for its on-demand music service and a growing portfolio of spoken-word content. Founded in Sweden in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon and launched commercially in 2008, the company offers a cross-platform app that enables users to discover, stream and organize music, podcasts and other audio. Its primary consumer products include a free, ad-supported tier and a paid Spotify Premium subscription that provides ad-free listening, offline playback and higher-quality audio streams.