Traders Purchase Large Volume of LegalZoom.com Put Options (NASDAQ:LZ)

LegalZoom.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:LZ) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders acquired 2,855 put options on the company. This is an increase of 163% compared to the typical volume of 1,084 put options.

Insider Transactions at LegalZoom.com

In other news, COO Richard Preece sold 9,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.17, for a total transaction of $124,614.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 498,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,565,495.23. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Nicole Miller sold 24,557 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.75, for a total value of $239,430.75. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 208,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,034,249.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Richard Preece sold 9,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.17, for a total value of $124,614.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 498,519 shares in the company, valued at $6,565,495.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,555 shares of company stock valued at $664,688 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in LegalZoom.com by 21.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,198,461 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,111,000 after acquiring an additional 208,030 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of LegalZoom.com by 21.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,999,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $142,219,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,224 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in LegalZoom.com by 83.0% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,315,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,504,152 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in LegalZoom.com by 24.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 908,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,938,000 after purchasing an additional 179,456 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of LegalZoom.com in the third quarter valued at $31,000. 81.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LZ. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $14.00 price objective on shares of LegalZoom.com in a report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on LegalZoom.com from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays decreased their price objective on LegalZoom.com from $17.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Raymond James began coverage on LegalZoom.com in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.36.

LegalZoom.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LZ remained flat at $11.93 on Monday. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 380,680 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,185,391. LegalZoom.com has a 1 year low of $7.78 and a 1 year high of $15.68. The stock has a market cap of $2.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 149.14, a PEG ratio of 4.18 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $12.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.50.

LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $158.66 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.25 million. LegalZoom.com had a return on equity of 15.79% and a net margin of 2.11%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that LegalZoom.com will post 0.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

LegalZoom.com Company Profile

LegalZoom.com, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an online platform that supports the legal, compliance, and business management needs of small businesses and consumers in the United States. The company's platform offers business formation products, such as limited liability company, incorporation of C and S corporations, nonprofit formations, doing-business-as, corporate changes and filings, business licenses, legal forms, and beneficial ownership information reports; intellectual property products consisting of trademark and patent applications, and copyright registrations; and tax services, including business and personal tax preparations.