Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Northland Securities lowered their price target on the stock from $22.00 to $20.00. The stock had previously closed at $15.71, but opened at $14.65. Northland Securities currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Groupon shares last traded at $14.38, with a volume of 516,776 shares trading hands.

GRPN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Groupon in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Northland Capmk raised shares of Groupon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.90.

Institutional Trading of Groupon

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GRPN. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Groupon during the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,897,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Groupon in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,884,000. Pale Fire Capital SE boosted its holdings in Groupon by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 7,040,410 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $90,399,000 after acquiring an additional 323,344 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Groupon by 259.3% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 191,514 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $2,930,000 after acquiring an additional 138,218 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Groupon in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,057,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.05% of the company’s stock.

Groupon Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $557.91 million, a PE ratio of -11.20 and a beta of 1.83. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.48, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The coupon company reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by $0.19. The business had revenue of $123.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.37 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.70) earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Groupon, Inc. will post 0.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Groupon

Groupon, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a marketplace that connects consumers to merchants. It operates in two segments, North America and International. The company sells goods or services on behalf of third-party merchants. It serves customers through its mobile applications and websites.