Groupon Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:GRPN)

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN – Get Rating) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 26,985 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 863% compared to the average daily volume of 2,803 call options.

Institutional Trading of Groupon

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in shares of Groupon by 55.8% in the first quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 55,479 shares of the coupon company’s stock valued at $234,000 after purchasing an additional 19,868 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Groupon by 2.9% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 414,367 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $1,744,000 after purchasing an additional 11,798 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC boosted its position in Groupon by 139.3% during the first quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 306,878 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $1,292,000 after purchasing an additional 178,628 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new position in Groupon during the first quarter worth $1,123,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in shares of Groupon by 9.8% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 38,968 shares of the coupon company’s stock valued at $164,000 after acquiring an additional 3,488 shares during the period. 57.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRPN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Credit Suisse Group decreased their price objective on shares of Groupon from $12.00 to $3.40 in a report on Friday, May 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Groupon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Groupon from $6.00 to $4.00 in a research report on Friday, March 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Groupon has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $7.98.

Groupon Stock Up 22.7 %

Groupon stock opened at $4.33 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $6.47. Groupon has a fifty-two week low of $2.89 and a fifty-two week high of $16.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $133.33 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.56 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 25.39, a current ratio of 0.57 and a quick ratio of 0.57.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 16th. The coupon company reported ($0.53) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.71) by $0.18. Groupon had a negative net margin of 40.87% and a negative return on equity of 161.07%. The business had revenue of $148.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $162.06 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Groupon will post -3.03 EPS for the current year.

Groupon Company Profile

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Groupon, Inc operates as a global scaled two-sided marketplace that connects consumers to merchants. It operates through the North America and International segments. The company was founded by Andrew D. Mason, Eric Paul Lefkofsky, and Bradley A. Keywell in 2008 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.