Analysts are already bullish on the surging stock
Berenberg initiated coverage on Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA) with a "buy" rating and $250 price target -- a 24% premium to last night's close. The brokerage firm waxed optimistic on the barcode printer maker's growth potential, as demand for asset tracking strengthens as companies across a wide swath of sectors scramble to keep up with Amazon (AMZN). Berenberg said ZBRA is "relatively cheap," and "could become an attractive strategic target to a larger entity."
This bullish outlook was echoed by Needham, which raised its ZBRA price target by $10 to $225, following the company's recent purchase of Temptime, a privately-held firm focused on temperature monitoring solutions for the healthcare industry. More broadly speaking, six of eight covering analysts maintain a "buy" or better rating on the stock, with not a single "sell" to be found, and the average 12-month price target sits at $218.29.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, short sellers increased their exposure in the latest reporting period, with these bearish bets up 3.1%. However, the 870,000 shares currently sold short accounts for just 1.6% of ZBRA's available float, and would take just over one session to cover, at the stock's average pace of trading.
Looking at the charts, Zebra Technologies stock took a sharp bounce off its 320-day moving average in late December, rallying all the way up to a record high of $207.88 by Feb. 25 -- a 47.5% gain. The shares have since consolidated some of these gains, but appear to be finding a foothold atop the round $200 mark, last seen down 0.4% to trade at $200.47.
