Groupon Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:GRPN)

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 21,592 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 164% compared to the average daily volume of 8,182 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GRPN. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Groupon by 112.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,456 shares of the coupon company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 2,888 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Groupon by 129.1% during the third quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 13,340 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $130,000 after acquiring an additional 7,516 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Groupon during the third quarter valued at approximately $145,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Groupon in the third quarter worth $174,000. Finally, Marathon Trading Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Groupon in the 3rd quarter valued at about $195,000. 90.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Groupon Price Performance

GRPN opened at $11.85 on Friday. Groupon has a 12-month low of $7.75 and a 12-month high of $19.56. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $10.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.56. The firm has a market cap of $471.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.24 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.66.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The coupon company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.58. Groupon had a return on equity of 91.94% and a net margin of 3.87%. The business had revenue of $114.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.02 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.22) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Groupon will post -0.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRPN has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Groupon from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Groupon from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 target price on shares of Groupon in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Groupon currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.00.

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.