Nomura Holdings Inc. Makes New Investment in Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL)

Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 1,701 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $435,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SEZL. G2 Investment Partners Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Sezzle by 275.9% in the fourth quarter. G2 Investment Partners Management LLC now owns 102,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,141,000 after acquiring an additional 75,007 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Sezzle by 792.3% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 79,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,460,000 after acquiring an additional 71,019 shares in the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sezzle by 912.8% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 21,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,397,000 after acquiring an additional 19,014 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Sezzle by 172.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 27,398 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,008,000 after acquiring an additional 17,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Sezzle by 816.9% in the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 15,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,018,000 after acquiring an additional 13,994 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 2.02% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sezzle news, Director Paul Paradis sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,350,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 315,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,625,000. This trade represents a 5.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen Hartje sold 311,196 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.83, for a total value of $22,353,208.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 154,266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,080,926.78. This trade represents a 66.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 426,396 shares of company stock valued at $32,422,491 in the last three months. 49.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Sezzle Stock Performance

NASDAQ SEZL opened at $99.11 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.30 billion, a PE ratio of 10.54 and a beta of 8.41. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.91. Sezzle Inc. has a 1-year low of $10.76 and a 1-year high of $104.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 2.40.

Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $271.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.90 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sezzle Inc. will post 9.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sezzle announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, March 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 4.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Sezzle Company Profile

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.