Investors Purchase High Volume of Groupon Call Options (NASDAQ:GRPN)

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

Institutional Trading of Groupon

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Groupon by 112.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,456 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 2,888 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Groupon by 129.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Groupon during the third quarter valued at $145,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in Groupon in the 3rd quarter worth about $174,000. Finally, Marathon Trading Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Groupon during the 3rd quarter valued at about $195,000. 90.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Groupon Price Performance

Shares of GRPN stock traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $12.66. 385,329 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,311,151. 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 has a 12-month low of $7.75 and a 12-month high of $19.56. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.56. The company has a market capitalization of $503.46 million, a PE ratio of 24.45 and a beta of 1.72.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The coupon company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.25) by $0.58. Groupon had a return on equity of 91.94% and a net margin of 3.87%. The company had revenue of $114.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.02 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.22) EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Groupon will post -0.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on GRPN shares. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Groupon from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Groupon from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Groupon in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.00.

Groupon Company Profile

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.