Needham & Company LLC Cuts LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE) Price Target to $62.00

LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE) had its price target trimmed by Needham & Company LLC from $65.00 to $62.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on TREE. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on shares of LendingTree in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of LendingTree from $73.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of LendingTree from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of LendingTree from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Northland Securities raised LendingTree from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $65.38.

LendingTree Trading Down 20.1 %

Shares of TREE stock opened at $43.22 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $584.98 million, a P/E ratio of -16.01 and a beta of 1.76. LendingTree has a 1 year low of $34.55 and a 1 year high of $62.49. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.67.

LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.25. LendingTree had a negative net margin of 4.72% and a positive return on equity of 0.51%. The business had revenue of $239.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $244.93 million. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 42.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that LendingTree will post 0.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at LendingTree

In other LendingTree news, COO Scott Peyree bought 9,794 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $46.13 per share, for a total transaction of $451,797.22. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now owns 97,566 shares in the company, valued at $4,500,719.58. This represents a 11.16 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 23.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On LendingTree

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TREE. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of LendingTree in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of LendingTree by 248.0% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 848 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of LendingTree during the fourth quarter worth $54,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co bought a new position in LendingTree in the fourth quarter valued at about $56,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in LendingTree in the fourth quarter worth about $70,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.26% of the company’s stock.

LendingTree Company Profile

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.