MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Texas Capital

Texas Capital upgraded shares of MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on MAX. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on MediaAlpha from $13.50 to $11.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on MediaAlpha from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on MediaAlpha from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on MediaAlpha from $18.00 to $11.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Zacks Research cut MediaAlpha from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $12.58.

MediaAlpha Stock Up 3.2%

MAX stock opened at $9.61 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $9.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.23. The stock has a market cap of $599.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.16. MediaAlpha has a fifty-two week low of $7.09 and a fifty-two week high of $13.92.

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $310.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $298.91 million. MediaAlpha had a negative return on equity of 147.82% and a net margin of 3.37%.MediaAlpha’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.04) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MediaAlpha will post 1.02 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Eugene Nonko sold 49,844 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total transaction of $500,433.76. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,329,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,344,153.96. This represents a 3.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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, insider Steven Yi sold 33,663 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.99, for a total value of $336,293.37. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 2,924,994 shares in the company, valued at $29,220,690.06. This represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. Insiders have sold 459,940 shares of company stock worth $4,512,545 in the last ninety days. 14.65% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its holdings in MediaAlpha by 5,900.0% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 2,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 2,124 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its holdings in MediaAlpha by 9,917.9% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 2,777 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its holdings in MediaAlpha by 43.3% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,087 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234 shares during the period. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in MediaAlpha during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in MediaAlpha by 28.0% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 1,213 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.39% of the company’s stock.

About MediaAlpha

MediaAlpha, Inc is a technology company that operates a real-time digital marketplace for the distribution of insurance and adjacent services. The company’s platform connects buyers—consumers seeking insurance policies—to sellers, including insurance carriers and distribution partners, through programmatic bidding and data-driven pricing. By leveraging transaction-level data and proprietary auction mechanics, MediaAlpha enables carriers to acquire customers more efficiently and at scale.

The firm offers a suite of products that help clients optimize marketing spend and improve conversion rates.