Coursera (NYSE:COUR) Shares Gap Up on Insider Buying Activity

Coursera, Inc. (NYSE:COUR) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday following insider buying activity. The stock had previously closed at $4.67, but opened at $4.96. Coursera shares last traded at $4.9530, with a volume of 1,266,172 shares traded.

Specifically, major shareholder Pale Fire Capital Se purchased 1,000,000 shares of Coursera stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 29th. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.61 per share, for a total transaction of $4,610,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 28,806,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $132,797,573.15. This trade represents a 3.60% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Pale Fire Capital Se acquired 1,332,742 shares of Coursera stock in a transaction on Friday, September 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $5.06 per share, for a total transaction of $6,743,674.52. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 27,806,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $140,700,459.90. The trade was a 5.03% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on COUR. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Coursera in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Coursera from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Coursera from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $5.50 to $6.50 in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Coursera from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Coursera from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Coursera has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.55.

Coursera Trading Up 6.5%

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.67. The company has a market cap of $1.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.26.

Coursera (NYSE:COUR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $298.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $293.61 million. Coursera had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 15.39%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 59.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.12 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Coursera, Inc. will post 0.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Coursera during the 2nd quarter valued at about $116,245,000. Pale Fire Capital SE grew its stake in Coursera by 94.4% in the 2nd quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 20,432,950 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,242,000 after acquiring an additional 9,921,347 shares in the last quarter. Caledonia Private Investments Pty Ltd bought a new position in Coursera in the 2nd quarter worth about $114,918,000. Readystate Asset Management LP increased its position in shares of Coursera by 259.2% during the second quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 4,027,181 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,713,000 after acquiring an additional 2,906,101 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Coursera during the second quarter worth approximately $9,848,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.55% of the company’s stock.

About Coursera

Coursera, Inc is an online learning platform that provides access to courses, professional certificates, guided projects, and degree programs. The company works with universities, colleges, and industry organizations to offer learning content in areas such as business, technology, data science, health, and the humanities.

Coursera serves individual learners as well as businesses, academic institutions, and government organizations. Its offerings include subscription-based course access, career-oriented professional credentials, online bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, and workforce development solutions designed to help organizations train employees and other learners.

Coursera was founded in 2012 by Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.