Grim, but largely unsurprising news on the Groupon IPO front: Wall Street research analysts, who are generally optimistic about companies their firms take public, have rendered unenthused judgment on Andrew Mason's company.
This explains, in part, likely why Groupon's stock slowed its roll yesterday and dipped somewhat. As of press time, it's up .26 points to $22.81 -- but that's not quite a slam dunk, to use highfalutin Wall Street lingo. No wait, that's basketball.
Anyway, on Wednesday, analysts at a majority of Groupon's underwriters, like Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, have, according to the Wall Street Journal, "issued the equivalent of 'hold' or neutral recommendations, with 'holds' outnumbering 'buys' by a margin of six to five."
Also from the same WSJ piece: "The analysts' mixed reviews reflect the ongoing questions surrounding Groupon. While the company is growing like a weed -- revenue for the first nine months this year rose more than seven times to $1.12 billion -- it's still unprofitable and the barriers to enter the market remain relatively low."
Be that as it may, Groupon's stock has rebounded once this week when all of this was still true. It can do it again. It's still anyone's ball game, er, IPO. Right?
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a columnist for EGM. He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. When not playing video games for work he's thinking of dashing out to Chicago Diner, Pizano's, or Yummy Yummy. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
