D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Purchases 19,014 Shares of Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its position in Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL) by 912.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,097 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,014 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned about 0.38% of Sezzle worth $5,397,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Sezzle by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 2,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $654,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in Sezzle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Sezzle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Sezzle by 3,575.0% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 147 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Sezzle by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $691,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 2.02% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sezzle

In other Sezzle news, CFO Karen Hartje sold 311,196 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.83, for a total value of $22,353,208.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 154,266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,080,926.78. This trade represents a 66.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Amin Sabzivand sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.86, for a total transaction of $736,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 277,074 shares in the company, valued at $22,681,277.64. The trade was a 3.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 426,396 shares of company stock worth $32,422,491. 57.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Sezzle Price Performance

Shares of Sezzle stock opened at $93.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a current ratio of 2.40. Sezzle Inc. has a 52-week low of $10.69 and a 52-week high of $95.53. The company has a fifty day moving average of $47.72 and a 200-day moving average of $48.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.98 and a beta of 8.41.

Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.22. Sezzle had a return on equity of 101.18% and a net margin of 25.29%. The firm had revenue of $271.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.90 million. Equities research analysts expect that Sezzle Inc. will post 9.77 EPS for the current year.

Sezzle declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 10th that allows the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 4.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $62.83 target price (up previously from $62.00) on shares of Sezzle in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th.

About Sezzle

Sezzle Inc operates as a technology-enabled payments company primarily in the United States and Canada. The company provides payment solution in-store and at online retail stores; and through proprietary payments solution that connects consumers with merchants. It also offers Sezzle Platform that provides a payments solution for consumers that extends credit at the point-of-sale allowing consumers to purchase and receive the ordered merchandise at the time of sale while paying in installments over time; Pay-in-Four, which allows consumers to pay a fourth of the purchase price up front and then another fourth of the purchase price every two weeks thereafter over a total of six weeks; Pay-in-Full that allows consumers to pay for the full value of their order up-front through the Sezzle Platform without the extension of credit; and Pay-in-Two and other alternative installment options, which allow consumer to pay half of the value of their order up-front and the second half in two weeks.