Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 14,760,000 shares, an increase of 7.3% from the December 15th total of 13,750,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 7,620,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Coupang from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Coupang from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.56.

Insider Activity at Coupang

In other news, Director Greenoaks Capital Partners Llc bought 687,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $24.08 per share, with a total value of $16,559,816.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 52,726,423 shares in the company, valued at $1,269,652,265.84. This trade represents a 1.32 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Bom Kim sold 15,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.97, for a total transaction of $344,550,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,940,000. This trade represents a 88.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 13.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Coupang by 1,053.7% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 407,940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,967,000 after purchasing an additional 372,581 shares during the period. Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new stake in Coupang during the 4th quarter worth $2,729,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Coupang by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 66,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,469,000 after acquiring an additional 11,914 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in Coupang in the fourth quarter valued at about $300,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Coupang by 85.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,100,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,182,000 after acquiring an additional 506,622 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.72% of the company’s stock.

Coupang Trading Down 1.1 %

CPNG stock traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $22.09. The stock had a trading volume of 5,495,026 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,054,672. The firm has a market cap of $39.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.75, a PEG ratio of 34.64 and a beta of 1.10. Coupang has a twelve month low of $13.51 and a twelve month high of $26.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.30.

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.05. Coupang had a net margin of 3.57% and a return on equity of 11.52%. The business had revenue of $7.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.05 earnings per share. Coupang’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Coupang will post 0.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Coupang Company Profile

Coupang, Inc, together with its subsidiaries owns and operates retail business through its mobile applications and Internet websites primarily in South Korea. The company operates through Product Commerce and Developing Offerings segments. It sells various products and services in the categories of home goods and décor products, apparel, beauty products, fresh food and groceries, sporting goods, electronics, and everyday consumables, as well as travel, and restaurant order and delivery services.