The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Integral Ad Science Holding Corp (NASDAQ:IAS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Communication Services company by 14.91% to 7.19 million shares with purchase of 0.93 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 4.59% valued currently at $82.51 million. In addition, Sunriver Management LLC raised its holdings by 2.19 million to 3.77 million shares. And ClearBridge Investments LLC has lifted its position by 6.19% or 0.19 million shares – to 3.28 million shares.
With over 6.04 million Integral Ad Science Holding Corp (IAS) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $14.02 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $84.71 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -26.94% and its price on 12/05/23 lost nearly -6.35%. Currently, there are 153.99M common shares owned by the public and among those 54.50M 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: 15 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for IAS have a consensus price objective of $20.81. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $27.00 and a low of $16.50. The average price target is 32.63% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 15.03% over that period. But an upside of 48.07% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $20.00.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Integral Ad Science Holding Corp are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund, and ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 2.55 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $29.23 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 13192.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 2.02 million shares valued at over $23.25 million and representing 1.29% of the shares outstanding. ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Fund bought 0.18 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.87 million shares at a value of $21.46 million. ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Fund now owns shares totaling to 1.19% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Integral Ad Science Holding Corp (NASDAQ: IAS) opened at $13.96, down -$1.01 from a prior closing price of $14.97. However, the script later moved the day high at 14.10, down -6.35%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -2.91% and 4.47% over the past three months. IAS shares are trading 59.50% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 42.92% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $8.23 and touched a high of $20.88 over the same period. IAS has an average intraday trading volume of 735.98K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -0.60%, 9.67%, and -5.69% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Integral Ad Science Holding Corp (NASDAQ: IAS) shares accounts for 32.05% of the company’s 153.99M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 17.61%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 50.77% and 14.67% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.21B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.82. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 261.57, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.05. The company has a PEG of 108.99 and a Quick Ratio of 3.47 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.23. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 3.20% over the week and 2.92% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Integral Ad Science Holding Corp (IAS) will achieve an EPS of $0.04 for the current quarter, $0.04 for the next quarter and $0.28 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.07 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.1. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.07 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -73.35%, and 953.70% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 15 brokerage firm advisors rate Integral Ad Science Holding Corp (IAS) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.47. Specifically, 11 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 3 of the 15 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the IAS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Macquarie stated their Outperform rating for the stock in a research note on September 27, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $16.
