Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Citigroup

Key Points

• Citigroup downgraded Coupang from "buy" to "neutral" and set a $22.20 price target, implying roughly a 6.9% upside from the stock's then-price.
• Quarterly results missed on EPS: Coupang reported -$0.15 EPS versus a -$0.09 consensus while revenue of $8.50B slightly beat expectations and rose 7.5% year-over-year; analysts forecast -$0.15 EPS for the current year.
• Significant insider and institutional buying: Director Neil Mehta acquired 2.33M shares at $18.40, insiders bought 7.35M shares over three months, and institutional investors now own about 83.7% of the company after large stake increases by firms like Vanguard and Tiger Global.

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $22.20 price target on the stock. Citigroup's target price suggests a potential upside of 6.86% from the stock's current price.

CPNG has been the topic of several other reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Coupang from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Nomura cut their price objective on shares of Coupang from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Coupang from $32.00 to $25.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Coupang from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $25.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group set a $25.00 price target on shares of Coupang in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $27.12.

Coupang Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of CPNG stock opened at $20.77 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $37.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 173.13 and a beta of 1.20. Coupang has a 1-year low of $16.74 and a 1-year high of $34.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $19.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.82.

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.48 billion. Coupang had a return on equity of 4.52% and a net margin of 0.60%.The company's revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.06 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Coupang will post -0.15 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Coupang

In other news, Director Neil Mehta acquired 2,332,863 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $18.40 per share, with a total value of $42,924,679.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 55,310,977 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,017,721,976.80. The trade was a 4.40% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have purchased a total of 7,350,104 shares of company stock valued at $136,566,051 over the last three months. 12.78% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Coupang

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CPNG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Coupang by 343.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,595,825 shares of the company's stock valued at $920,786,000 after acquiring an additional 22,147,432 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Coupang in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $498,333,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Coupang by 1,394.1% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 17,117,583 shares of the company's stock valued at $323,180,000 after acquiring an additional 15,971,942 shares in the last quarter. Tiger Global Management LLC grew its position in Coupang by 65.9% in the fourth quarter. Tiger Global Management LLC now owns 26,267,259 shares of the company's stock valued at $619,645,000 after acquiring an additional 10,429,680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Coupang by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 41,131,036 shares of the company's stock worth $970,340,000 after buying an additional 6,977,942 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.72% of the company's stock.

About Coupang

Coupang, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CPNG, is a South Korean e-commerce company headquartered in Seoul. Founded in 2010 by Bom Kim, the company grew rapidly by combining an online marketplace with a large direct-retail business model. Coupang completed a primary listing in the United States in 2021, and it has become one of South Korea's leading online retailers by focusing on convenience, speed and a wide product assortment across consumer categories.

The company operates a vertically integrated e-commerce platform that includes a customer-facing marketplace and an extensive logistics and fulfillment network.

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