On June 23rd, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans announced a decrease in its holdings in Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO) by a whopping 21.2%. The company sold 2,345 shares during the fourth quarter, reducing its total holdings to 8,715 shares worth around $427,000 as of the latest SEC filing. This move comes after the announcement of insider sales by CFO Aidan Viggiano and insider Dana Wagner.
Twilio Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, is known for its unique development of cloud-based communications software and services; some of their most innovative products include Twilio flex, messaging, programmable voice, programmable video, elastic SIP trunking, and IoT. The trio of technology veterans who founded the company back in 2008 – John Wolthuis, Jeffery G. Lawson and Evan Cooke – have since become renowned pioneers in tech innovation and digital transformation.
Twilio has experienced a strong run on the stock market lately with share prices rising from $45.49 to $63.76 per share in March. Since then they have steadily increased once again with share prices currently at $89.93 per share. Insiders seem to have taken note of these increases as they were responsible for multiple sales over the past few months.
In May this year alone, insiders accounted for two major sales involving Dana Wagner – totaling around 1,977 shares – that amounted to almost $90 thousand dollars worth of transactions while CFO Aidan Viggiano sold over six thousand shares valued at almost four hundred thousand dollars in March.
While these insider transactions may raise concerns among shareholders regarding Twilio’s future performance on the stock market, it remains one of the most well-known companies in cloud computing technology today; thus attracting both individual investors and financial heavyweights like Thrivent Financial for Lutherans alike. Although such sales are not uncommon among insiders aiming to take advantage of the price rise and to secure their profits, it raises skepticism from experts as to where the stock may be heading next. Nevertheless, in times marked by strong innovation and technology-growth potential like these, we can expect Twilio to remain a leading player in the industry – with or without insider investment.
Investors Buy and Sell Shares of Cloud-based Communications Software Company Twilio
Investors recently bought and sold shares of Twilio, the cloud-based communications software company. Several institutional investors added to their stakes, with James Investment Research Inc. purchasing a new stake worth $26,000 during the fourth quarter and Zullo Investment Group Inc increasing its position by 263.6% during the third quarter. Meanwhile, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake by 169.4% during the same quarter while Covestor Ltd raised its holdings by 419.5%. Concord Wealth Partners also joined in by buying a new position in Twilio during the fourth quarter with an investment valued at $36,000. Institutional investors now own 78.68% of the company’s stock.
While several analysts have weighed in on TWLO shares, there is no clear consensus on its prospects. Cowen lifted Twilio’s price target from $65 to $75 and assigned it a “market perform” rating, while Canaccord Genuity Group upped its rating to “buy” and increased its target price from $88 to $97 back in February 2016. In contrast, Barclays reduced Twilio’s price objective from $75 to $50 last month, while The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded it from “buy” to “neutral,” dropping their target price from $90 to $53.
San Francisco-based Twilio offers several products, including Twilio flex, messaging, programmable voice and video and IoT that can strengthen businesses’ communication capabilities through their software offerings in areas such as healthcare or transportation services.
TWLO opened Friday trading at just over $59 per share – it has a year low of $41 and a year high of nearly $111 on record.
The firm posted quarterly results earlier this month: Revenue was reported under expectations coming in slightly above $1 billion ($101 million net loss compared with estmiated figure of between $(0.51) and $(0.56) EPS).
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