Groupon Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:GRPN)

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders bought 14,702 call options on the company. This is an increase of 82% compared to the typical daily volume of 8,065 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GRPN. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Groupon in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised Groupon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Groupon in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Groupon in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $26.00 target price on Groupon in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.00.

Groupon Stock Down 7.6%

NASDAQ:GRPN traded down $1.89 on Monday, hitting $23.14. The stock had a trading volume of 1,072,226 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,627,132. Groupon has a 52 week low of $9.17 and a 52 week high of $35.18. The business’s fifty day moving average is $22.91 and its 200 day moving average is $17.11. The company has a market cap of $878.91 million, a PE ratio of -7.43 and a beta of 0.23.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The coupon company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $124.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.09 million. Equities analysts predict that Groupon will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Groupon by 22.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,108,578 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $49,235,000 after acquiring an additional 383,277 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Groupon by 552.5% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,136,524 shares of the coupon company’s stock valued at $38,017,000 after purchasing an additional 962,337 shares in the last quarter. Garnet Equity Capital Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Groupon by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Garnet Equity Capital Holdings Inc. now owns 958,660 shares of the coupon company’s stock valued at $16,882,000 after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Groupon by 25.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 881,422 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $15,522,000 after purchasing an additional 180,992 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Groupon by 749.0% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 791,498 shares of the coupon company’s stock worth $13,938,000 after purchasing an additional 698,270 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.05% of the company’s stock.

About Groupon

Groupon, Inc operates an online marketplace that connects subscribers with local merchants offering discounted goods, services and experiences. Through its website and mobile applications, Groupon provides time-limited deals across categories such as restaurants, travel, beauty and wellness, home services, and consumer products. Merchants partner with Groupon to attract new customers and drive foot traffic, leveraging the platform’s targeted marketing tools and large subscriber base to promote special offers and vouchers.

Founded in Chicago in 2008 by Andrew Mason, Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, Groupon pioneered the daily-deals model, quickly growing its user community and merchant network.