What Happened?
Shares of fertility benefits company Progyny (NASDAQ: PGNY) fell 5.1% in the afternoon session after a broader market downturn triggered by a surprisingly weak U.S. labor market report. The decline was not driven by company-specific news, as the fertility benefits provider had recently announced a global expansion. Instead, the move was part of a market-wide negative reaction to new economic data. The report showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by only 22,000 in August, and the jobless rate rose to 4.3%. This sharp cooling in the labor market sparked fears of a more significant slowdown, leading to a flight to safer assets like Treasuries and causing stocks to fall. The negative sentiment was compounded by historical trends, as September is, on average, a seasonally weak month for the stock market.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Progyny’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 11 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 9 days ago when the stock gained 3.1% on the news that JPMorgan raised its price target on the company's stock.
JPMorgan increased its price target to $25 from $23, while maintaining a "Neutral" rating on the shares. This move reflects an updated model of the company's performance and prospects. The positive sentiment from JPMorgan follows similar actions from other analysts recently. For instance, Cantor Fitzgerald also raised its price objective to $28 from $26 while reissuing an "overweight" rating.
Additionally, Truist Financial lifted its target price on Progyny to $27 from $24. The series of price target increases from Wall Street firms suggests a more optimistic outlook on the stock's valuation, likely boosting investor confidence.
Progyny is up 26.4% since the beginning of the year, but at $22.42 per share, it is still trading 9.7% below its 52-week high of $24.82 from September 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Progyny’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $806.88.
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