A banner week for Groupon
Shares of Groupon Incorporated (ticker symbol: GRPN) tacked on another 1.8% during Friday’s abbreviated holiday session. Amazing as it seems, today’s close has made this the largest weekly gain (percentage wise) the company has logged since going public.
Shares for the daily dealing gorilla climbed 32.6% this week on top of last week’s 8% gain. I know, craziness isn’t it? However before we break out the party hats, let’s not forget that shares remain over 80% below the IPO offered price of $20 and a staggering 87% below the $31.14 print that was logged during opening week, just over a year ago.
In my opinion a major portion of this week’s gains can be attributed to investors and short covering based on the news that the hedge fund Tiger Global Management purchased a 9.9% stake in Groupon. It should be noted that Tiger Global also has stakes in Facebook (ticker symbol: FB) and Yahoo (ticker symbol: YHOO), among other big tech companies.
On Wednesday Groupon rolled out a laundry list of holiday shopping tools that it calls “Grouponicus.” That includes free shipping on some retail items from Groupon Goods, a first-ever holiday catalog and “real-time gift suggestions” via the company’s Twitter account.
The numbers
GRPN closed the holiday shortened trading session at $ 3.95 up $ .07 (1.80%). Shares had traded as high as $ 4.10. The volume today was 14.2 million shares, just below normal trading volume. This was still impressive and a positive for the stock – again considering it was a short session today.
Shares are up a whopping 51.5% since the November 12th low of $2.60. While this trading rally has certainly been impressive, in my opinion the stock and company still have a long way to go.
Read More: Groupon Profile
