Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) Trading 6.8% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL) traded up 6.8% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $231.99 and last traded at $232.38. 32,418 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 114,687 shares. The stock had previously closed at $217.65.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Northland Securities upped their price target on Sezzle from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $377.00 price target (up previously from $372.00) on shares of Sezzle in a report on Wednesday, February 26th.

Sezzle Stock Up 6.7 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $257.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $255.09. The firm has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.86 and a beta of 9.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 2.40.

Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $4.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.08 by $1.31. Sezzle had a return on equity of 101.18% and a net margin of 25.29%. The business had revenue of $271.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.90 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sezzle Inc. will post 9.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sezzle declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 10th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 4.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Karen Hartje sold 3,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.32, for a total value of $1,093,518.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 35,121 shares in the company, valued at $11,109,474.72. This represents a 8.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 57.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sezzle

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Sezzle by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 169,614 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,387,000 after acquiring an additional 3,853 shares during the period. G2 Investment Partners Management LLC grew its position in Sezzle by 275.9% in the fourth quarter. G2 Investment Partners Management LLC now owns 102,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,141,000 after acquiring an additional 75,007 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Sezzle by 792.3% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 79,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,460,000 after acquiring an additional 71,019 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Sezzle by 3.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,362 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,421,000 after acquiring an additional 1,683 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Sezzle by 172.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 27,398 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,008,000 after acquiring an additional 17,351 shares during the period. 2.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Sezzle

Sezzle Inc operates as a technology-enabled payments company primarily in the United States and Canada. The company provides payment solution in-store and at online retail stores; and through proprietary payments solution that connects consumers with merchants. It also offers Sezzle Platform that provides a payments solution for consumers that extends credit at the point-of-sale allowing consumers to purchase and receive the ordered merchandise at the time of sale while paying in installments over time; Pay-in-Four, which allows consumers to pay a fourth of the purchase price up front and then another fourth of the purchase price every two weeks thereafter over a total of six weeks; Pay-in-Full that allows consumers to pay for the full value of their order up-front through the Sezzle Platform without the extension of credit; and Pay-in-Two and other alternative installment options, which allow consumer to pay half of the value of their order up-front and the second half in two weeks.