LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) Shares Gap Down to $12.19

LegalZoom.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:LZ) shares gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $12.19, but opened at $9.81. LegalZoom.com shares last traded at $9.59, with a volume of 800,129 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LZ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays cut their target price on shares of LegalZoom.com from $17.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Raymond James assumed coverage on LegalZoom.com in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on LegalZoom.com from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $14.00 target price on shares of LegalZoom.com in a report on Friday, April 12th. One research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $14.36.

LegalZoom.com Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.18 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $12.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.51.

LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) last announced 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. LegalZoom.com had a net margin of 2.11% and a return on equity of 15.79%. The company had revenue of $158.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.25 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that LegalZoom.com, Inc. will post 0.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Richard Preece sold 9,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.17, for a total value of $124,614.54. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 498,519 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,565,495.23. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other LegalZoom.com news, Director John Francis Murphy sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.47, for a total transaction of $124,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 40,507 shares in the company, valued at approximately $505,122.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Richard Preece sold 9,462 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,565,495.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 60,555 shares of company stock valued at $664,688 in the last quarter. Insiders own 10.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of LegalZoom.com

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blair William & Co. IL raised its position in shares of LegalZoom.com by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 3,836,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,177,000 after buying an additional 195,512 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of LegalZoom.com by 22.5% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 24,042 shares of the company’s stock worth $321,000 after buying an additional 4,420 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of LegalZoom.com by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 167,917 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,240,000 after buying an additional 8,481 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of LegalZoom.com by 39.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 83,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,117,000 after buying an additional 23,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of LegalZoom.com by 148.3% in the 1st quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC now owns 70,797 shares of the company’s stock worth $944,000 after purchasing an additional 42,288 shares in the last quarter. 81.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.