LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) Stock Price Up 4% – Still a Buy?

LegalZoom.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:LZ) shares traded up 4% during trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as $4.94 and last traded at $5.0120. Approximately 97,063 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 97% from the average session volume of 2,993,810 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LZ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on LegalZoom.com from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of LegalZoom.com from $6.00 to $5.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of LegalZoom.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 7th. Bank of America cut LegalZoom.com from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, William Blair lowered LegalZoom.com from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $6.70.

LegalZoom.com Price Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $6.06 and its 200-day moving average is $6.44. The company has a market capitalization of $815.06 million, a P/E ratio of 41.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.16.

LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19. The business had revenue of $195.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.83 million. LegalZoom.com had a net margin of 2.56% and a return on equity of 23.63%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that LegalZoom.com, Inc. will post 0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other LegalZoom.com news, CFO Noel Watson sold 83,629 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.83, for a total value of $487,557.07. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1,407,801 shares in the company, valued at $8,207,479.83. This trade represents a 5.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicole Miller sold 33,479 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.51, for a total value of $184,469.29. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 943,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,198,426.03. The trade was a 3.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 577,475 shares of company stock valued at $3,375,197 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of LegalZoom.com

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LZ. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in LegalZoom.com by 187.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,509,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,231,000 after buying an additional 1,636,487 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of LegalZoom.com during the third quarter worth approximately $8,375,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of LegalZoom.com by 579.1% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,010,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,732,000 after acquiring an additional 862,045 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of LegalZoom.com during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,918,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of LegalZoom.com by 98.1% in the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 881,567 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,923,000 after purchasing an additional 436,619 shares during the period. 81.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About LegalZoom.com

LegalZoom.com, Inc. provides online legal and compliance services to individuals and small businesses. Its platform helps customers complete common legal tasks through guided tools and access to professional services. Services include forming limited liability companies and corporations, registered agent services, business compliance support, trademark applications, and personal legal documents such as wills and estate plans. The company also offers access to attorneys for legal advice and assistance.