Groupon Inc. (GRPN): Not A Time To Panic Nor Freeze

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC has recently announced that it has increased stake in Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) by 2,252.07%. After grabbing 1.6 million shares, the institutional investor is now in possession of 1.53 million shares of the Communication Services Company. The new investment brought the stake of investor firm to 5.25% having worth around $12.0 million. Moreover, Intrinsic Edge Capital Management increased its share by 1.0 million to have a control over 1.0 million shares. And Charles Schwab Investment Managem raised its holdings to 26160.0 shares by acquiring 0.54 million shares or 1.77% of the stake.

Groupon Inc. (GRPN) concluded trading on 03/16/23 at a closing price of $4.90, with 2.14 million shares of worth about $10.49 million changed hands on the day. Half year performance of the stock remained negative as price took a plunge of -60.74% during that period and on Thursday the price saw a loss of about -3.92%. Currently the company’s common shares owned by public are about 30.31M shares, out of which, 19.17M shares are available for trading.

A deeper look into what the analysts at Wall Street are thinking about the price target of this stock provides us with the following: 5 analysts are covering the GRPN stock and their offered price forecasts bring an average price target of $9.38. Over the next 12 months, analysts forecasted that the stock’s price could jump as high as $15.00 and could fall to a lowest price of $6.00. The stock’s current price level is 47.76% above of average price target set by the analysts, while a rise to estimated low would result in gain of 18.33% for the stock. However, touching the estimated high of $15.00 would mean a gain of 67.33% for the stock.

According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insiders took part in trade of the company’s stock for 100 times over the past 12 months. They bought 3,383,692 shares in 68 of the transactions. In 32 selling transactions, insiders dumped 5,878,928 shares.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, iShares Russell 2000 ETF, and IAM Prentice Long Short Equity UC are the top 3 mutual funds which are holding stakes in Groupon Inc. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is currently holding 0.7 million shares of worth totaling $5.25 million. The company recently came buying 0.0 shares which brought its stake up to 2.30% of the company’s outstanding shares. iShares Russell 2000 ETF sold 1566.0 shares, after which its hold over company’s outstanding shares shrunk to 1.62%, leaving 0.49 million shares with the mutual fund that have a worth of about $3.71 million. IAM Prentice Long Short Equity UC, after buying 0.4 million shares, have now control over 1.33% of the stake in the company. It holds 0.4 million shares of worth $3.03 million.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) started trading at $5.08, below -$0.02 from concluding price of the previous day. However, the stock later moved at a day high price of 5.1000, or with a loss of -3.92%. Stock saw a price change of -14.49% in past 5 days and over the past one month there was a price change of -34.75%. Year-to-date (YTD), GRPN shares are showing a performance of -42.89% which decreased to -73.08% when we look at its performance for past 12 months. Over the period of past 52 weeks, stock dropped to lowest price of $4.98 but also hit the highest price of $21.17 during that period. The average intraday trading volume for Groupon Inc. shares is 971.71K. The stock is currently trading -26.44% below its 20-day simple moving average (SMA20), while that difference is down -35.81% for SMA50 and it goes to -48.58% lower than SMA200.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acquired 1.6 million shares of Groupon Inc. having value of about $12.0 million. Data submitted at the U.S SEC by Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC revealed that the firm now holds 1.53 million shares in the company valued at close to $7499254.0, or have control over 2,252.07% stake in the company. Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) currently have 30.31M outstanding shares and institutions hold larger chunk of about 61.40% of that. Holding of mutual funds in the company is about 32.91% while other institutional holders and individual stake holders have control over 63.05% and 15.54% of the stake respectively.

The stock has a current market capitalization of $152.34M and its 3Y-monthly beta is at 1.86. It has posted earnings per share of -$5.26 in the same period. It has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. Volatility of a stock is a metric used to know how much the price of that stock is under influence and for GRPN, volatility over the week remained 7.89% while standing at 6.19% over the month.

Analysts are in expectations that Groupon Inc. (GRPN) stock would likely to be making an EPS of -$0.4 in the current quarter, while forecast for next quarter EPS is -$0.07 and it is $0.63 for next year. For the current quarter EPS, analysts have given the company a lowest target -$0.48 which is -$0.27 at the higher side of the target for the same. When we compare those targets with actual EPS, we find that company posted an EPS of $0.18 in the same quarter a year ago. Stock’s fiscal year EPS is expected to rise by 135.10% while it is estimated to increase by 130.60% in next year. EPS is likely to shrink at an annualized rate of 8.48% for next 5-years, compared to annual growth of 20.80% made by the stock over the past 5-years.

Digging deeper we find that several firms have released their research notes about the support levels of the stock. Most recent of them is a note released by Goldman on July 15, 2022 offering a Sell rating for the stock and assigned a target price range of between $12.10 and $11 to it. On March 01, 2021, JP Morgan Upgrade their recommendations, while on January 04, 2021, Barclays Resumed their ratings for the stock with a price target of $18. Stock get a Buy rating from DA Davidson on June 17, 2020.