What's Behind the Selling of DASH Shares?

No one could ignore DoorDash's price drop during morning trading session, as the stock fell to $104.66, logging a -2.0% underperformance of the S&P 500. The stock is still trading within range of its average target price of $106.15, which may prove to be a resistance point to further declines. Analysts have given the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery stock target prices ranging from 51.0 to 140.0 dollars per share, with an average rating of buy.

For the greater market's outlook on the stock, we can use DoorDash's short interest as a proxy. The short interest represents the proportion of the float's shares that are tied to short positions, meaning that the investor believes the stock will decline in the future. Here, the stock's short interest is 5.2% which means the outlook is split.

Short selling involves borrowing shares and then selling them at current market prices. In the successful version of the strategy, the shares are purchased at a lower price at some time in the future. The investor then returns the shares to the lender, and keeps the profit made on the sell/buy transaction.

Another way to gauge the sentiment on DoorDash is to look at the percentage of institutions that are invested in the stock. In this case, 91.5% of the shares are held by pension, mutual, and hedge funds, which shows that these institutions probably have strong confidence in the stock.

If institutions are invested in a particular stock, it shows in most cases that they have performed quality research and concluded that it is a good investment. In some cases, however, increases in institutional ownership could be a sign of a takeover attempt or proxy fight, which can actually injure share prices. Also, institutions are not infallible, and can certainly make miscalculations -- often with spectacular results.

Overall, there is mixed market sentiment towards DoorDash because of an analyst consensus of some upside potential, a buy rating, an average amount of shares sold short, and a significant number of institutional investors. Investors should not base their decisions on market sentiment only, they should also be aware of a stock's fundamentals before committing.

At a glance, here are some essential statistics you may want to know about DASH:

  • It has trailing 12 month earnings per share (EPS) of $-2.73 per share

  • DoorDash has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of -38.3 while the S&P 500 average is 15.97

  • The company has a Price to Book (P/B) ratio of 6.36 in contrast to the S&P 500's average ratio of 2.95

  • DoorDash is a Industrials company, and the sector average P/E and P/B ratios are 22.19 and 4.06 respectively

The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.

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