Groupon witnessed a remarkably large volume of options trading activity on Tuesday when investors purchased 8,163 options on the company. The volume of options trading was an increase of 233% compared to the average volume of 2,452 call options.
Recent insider selling
In a separate news, Groupon CAO Brain Stevens offloaded 9,046 shares of the company in an open market transaction on Dec. 22. Stevens sold the shares at an average price of $7.95, totaling to $74,777.70. Post-transaction, Stevens directly owns 7,394 shares in the company, which are valued at approximately $58,782, as per the filing with the SEC.
Also director Bradley A. Keywell sold 500,000 shares of the company in a transaction that occurred on Dec. 17. Keywell sold the stock at an average price of $7.01 for a total transaction value of approximately $3.5 million, according to a filing with the SEC.
In a transaction on Dec. 15, CEO Eric P. Lefkofsky sold 454,166 shares of the company at an average price of $7.18 for a total transaction price of about $3.3 million.
Groupon a Buy
Recently a number of analysts have assigned ratings on Groupon. Brean Capital analysts increased their price target on the stock from $10 to $11 per share in a research note to investors on Monday. The analysts have assigned a Buy rating to the company. In their report, they noted that the company is making strategic efforts to develop a range of product platforms and said its ventures suggest the company’s intention to expand in preferred markets with broader-based offerings.
B. Riley analysts maintained their Buy rating on the stock and assigned it a price target of $9.75 in a research note to investors on Dec. 18. In a research note to investors on Dec. 1, analysts at Bank of America upgraded Groupon from Neutral to Buy and assigned it a price target of $9.50, an increase from $8 per share.The stock has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $8.80 a share.
Groupon witnessed a sharp decline in short interest for the month of November. Short interest as of Nov. 28 totaled about 89.3 million shares, which was a decline of 4.6% from the Nov. 14 total of around 93.6 million shares. Year to date, shares of the company are down by around 32%.
