Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) Stock Rating Raised to Buy at Citigroup

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) was upgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $19.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 24.32% from the company’s current price.

CPNG has been the subject of several other reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Coupang in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $31.00 price objective on Coupang in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Coupang from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $29.00 target price on shares of Coupang in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Mizuho set a $22.00 target price on Coupang in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.77.

Coupang Price Performance

Shares of Coupang stock opened at $15.28 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.54 and a beta of 1.15. Coupang has a twelve month low of $13.35 and a twelve month high of $32.14. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.22.

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by ($0.09). Coupang had a negative return on equity of 8.77% and a negative net margin of 2.16%. The business had revenue of $9.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.05 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Coupang will post -0.47 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Jonathan D. Lee sold 5,519 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.65, for a total transaction of $75,334.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 176,396 shares in the company, valued at $2,407,805.40. This represents a 3.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Harold Rogers sold 192,110 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.18, for a total value of $3,108,339.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 740,931 shares in the company, valued at $11,988,263.58. This trade represents a 20.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 203,148 shares of company stock valued at $3,272,530 in the last three months. 12.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tiger Global Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Coupang by 31.7% during the first quarter. Tiger Global Management LLC now owns 34,595,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $653,161,000 after purchasing an additional 8,328,148 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Coupang by 112.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 28,102,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $389,777,000 after purchasing an additional 14,865,737 shares during the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Coupang by 98.3% in the first quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 11,771,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,242,000 after purchasing an additional 5,835,072 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Coupang by 20.1% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,366,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,404,000 after purchasing an additional 732,300 shares during the period. Finally, RDST Capital LLC increased its holdings in Coupang by 69.3% in the first quarter. RDST Capital LLC now owns 3,646,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,492,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.72% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Coupang

Here are the key news stories impacting Coupang this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 revenue was $9.96 billion, above FactSet’s $9.76 billion estimate. One Zacks report also said Coupang’s adjusted loss of $0.18 per share was narrower than its cited $0.23 consensus loss. Revenue report Zacks earnings report
• Neutral Sentiment: Coupang said it is investing in growth initiatives. Those investments may support longer-term expansion, but the reports provide no detail here on their expected returns or timing. Article on growth investments
• Negative Sentiment: Coupang posted an adjusted loss of $0.18 per share, compared with a profit of $0.05 a year earlier. Analyst comparisons differ: MarketBeat cited a $0.09 expected loss, making the result a miss, while Zacks cited a $0.23 expected loss, making it a beat. A separate report characterized a $248 million fire-related impact as wiping out the quarter, adding a potential drag on profitability. Loss report Fire impact article

About Coupang

Coupang, Inc is an e-commerce and technology company that operates a large digital retail platform. The company offers a broad selection of merchandise, including electronics, household goods, apparel, beauty products and groceries. Its services include Rocket Delivery, a fast-delivery program; Rocket Fresh, which focuses on fresh food and groceries; and Wow, a membership program that provides delivery and other customer benefits.

Coupang also operates Coupang Eats, a restaurant-ordering and delivery service, as well as Coupang Play, a digital video streaming platform.