Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) saw a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,760,000 shares, an increase of 7.3% from the December 31st total of 13,750,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,620,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days. Approximately 1.2% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CPNG. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Coupang from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup cut their price target on Coupang from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.56.

Insider Activity at Coupang

In related news, Director Greenoaks Capital Partners Llc acquired 750,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $24.01 per share, with a total value of $18,007,500.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 52,038,723 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,249,449,739.23. This trade represents a 1.46 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Bom Kim sold 15,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.97, for a total value of $344,550,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,940,000. The trade was a 88.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 13.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Coupang

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Coupang by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 27,153,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $666,621,000 after acquiring an additional 6,584,910 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Coupang by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,125,599 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,783,000 after acquiring an additional 259,400 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Coupang by 43.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,630,058 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,868,000 after purchasing an additional 2,603,046 shares in the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Coupang by 53.3% in the 4th quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 7,383,611 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,292,000 after acquiring an additional 2,566,581 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Coupang by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,885,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,483,000 after purchasing an additional 29,164 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.72% of the company’s stock.

Coupang Price Performance

Shares of Coupang stock traded up $0.44 on Tuesday, reaching $24.02. The stock had a trading volume of 645,146 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,904,314. Coupang has a 1 year low of $13.66 and a 1 year high of $26.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market cap of $43.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 42.58 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50 day moving average is $23.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.43.

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.05. Coupang had a return on equity of 11.52% and a net margin of 3.57%. The firm had revenue of $7.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.05 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 27.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Coupang will post 0.14 EPS for the current year.

Coupang Company Profile

Coupang, Inc, together with its subsidiaries owns and operates retail business through its mobile applications and Internet websites primarily in South Korea. The company operates through Product Commerce and Developing Offerings segments. It sells various products and services in the categories of home goods and décor products, apparel, beauty products, fresh food and groceries, sporting goods, electronics, and everyday consumables, as well as travel, and restaurant order and delivery services.