Open Lending (NASDAQ:LPRO) Shares Gap Up to $4.80

Shares of Open Lending Co. (NASDAQ:LPRO) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $4.80, but opened at $4.92. Open Lending shares last traded at $4.88, with a volume of 26,759 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on LPRO shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Open Lending from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $4.00 to $7.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Open Lending in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on shares of Open Lending from $7.50 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Open Lending in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Open Lending in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $7.07.

Open Lending Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 14.08 and a quick ratio of 14.08. The firm has a market cap of $577.76 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.24 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $6.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.93.

Open Lending (NASDAQ:LPRO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by ($0.09). Open Lending had a return on equity of 10.45% and a net margin of 18.79%. The firm had revenue of $14.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.55 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.03) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 44.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Open Lending Co. will post 0.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John Joseph Flynn sold 50,000 shares of Open Lending stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.35, for a total transaction of $367,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,993,762 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,654,150.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 150,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,110,000 over the last quarter. 17.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Open Lending by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,474,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,628,000 after buying an additional 46,912 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Open Lending by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 416,170 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,542,000 after buying an additional 42,583 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of Open Lending by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 25,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $213,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Open Lending in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Open Lending by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 85,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $724,000 after buying an additional 2,601 shares in the last quarter. 78.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Open Lending

Open Lending Corporation provides lending enablement and risk analytics solutions to credit unions, regional banks, finance companies, and captive finance companies of automakers in the United States. The company offers Lenders Protection Program (LPP), which is a cloud-based automotive lending platform that provides loan analytics solutions and automated issuance of credit default insurance with third-party insurance providers.