Why Unity Software Stock Keeps Going Up

More and more analysts are unifying behind a bull thesis on Unity Software (U 10.96%). Shares of the graphics software company rocketed 14% yesterday after Jefferies raised its price target to $35. Today, three more analysts are chiming in on Unity -- and the stock is up 10.8% through 9:55 a.m. ET. Image source: Getty Images. Valuing Unity stock In a trio of notes this morning, UBS raised its price target on Unity stock to $33, with a neutral rating; Wedbush raised its price target to $39 with an outperform recommendation; and Morgan Stanley ended with a good news/bad news note: Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Cost writes today on The Fly that he's seeing "marked improvement" with Unity Ads sales up 15% to 20%. Unity has "produced a fundamentally more competitive ad product," says Cost, that's translating into tremendous sales growth. Is Unity stock a buy? But here's the weird part: Cost gives Unity stock an overweight rating, but only a $25 price target, which is below the $38 Unity stock costs today. So what's an investor to make of that? Morgan Stanley might have made a typo, and meant to value Unity stock higher. Alternatively, what Cost might be trying to say is that Unity would be a buy... at the right price. And that's a sentiment I agree with. With $308 million in trailing free cash flow and a $15.8 billion market cap, Unity stock now trades at a steep 51 price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. This seems expensive to me given most analysts forecast the company will grow FCF only about 26% annually over the next five years. But if you cut the stock's price 35% or so, to about $25 a share, $10.4 billion, or 33.5 times FCF, the valuation looks more attractive. At that price, I might even buy some myself.