Trent Ziegler Sells 8,750 Shares of LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE) Stock

LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE) CFO Trent Ziegler sold 8,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.30, for a total value of $431,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 5 shares in the company, valued at $246.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

LendingTree Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of LendingTree stock opened at $47.81 on Thursday. LendingTree, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.12 and a fifty-two week high of $52.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.80, a quick ratio of 3.71 and a current ratio of 3.71. The company has a market cap of $632.29 million, a P/E ratio of -4.61 and a beta of 2.10. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.78.

LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.14. LendingTree had a positive return on equity of 1.34% and a negative net margin of 21.07%. The company had revenue of $134.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $135.55 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.53) EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that LendingTree, Inc. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in LendingTree by 0.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 345,292 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,352,000 after acquiring an additional 2,952 shares during the period. Shenkman Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of LendingTree by 186.2% during the 4th quarter. Shenkman Capital Management Inc. now owns 343,440 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,413,000 after purchasing an additional 223,440 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in LendingTree by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 227,302 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,892,000 after buying an additional 11,753 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in LendingTree by 26.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 189,846 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,943,000 after buying an additional 39,745 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Grotto Capital LLC purchased a new stake in LendingTree during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,930,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TREE has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of LendingTree from $25.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of LendingTree from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of LendingTree from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on LendingTree from $15.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on LendingTree from $40.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.50.

About LendingTree

LendingTree, Inc, through its subsidiary, operates online consumer platform in the United States. It operates through three segments: Home, Consumer, and Insurance. The Home segment offers purchase mortgage, refinance mortgage, and home equity loans and lines of credit; and real estate brokerage services.