Boston, MA 08/29/2014 (wallstreetpr) – The future is bright for digital coupons, where Coupons.Com Inc (NYSE:COUP) is a big player. Analysts at Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) are the latest to take notice of the encouraging trend, and they have issued a positive recommendation on the stock in a note to investors. They think that buying COUP is a wise move because of potential rewards.
In a note to investors, Bank of America’s analyst, Nat Schindler, restated a “Buy” recommendation on the stock of Coupons.Com and also issued a target price of $30 on the stock. The new target price is almost double the current price of the stock, which is about $14.95. The stock was gaining more than 7% in the early morning session but remains down more than 50% so far this year.
Encouraging trend
In their recommendation of Coupons.Com Inc (NYSE:COUP), BAC cited various market research reports that show increasing coupon activities. For example, they noted that digital coupons continue to grow with distribution volume jumping 31% year-over-year. They also noted that digital coupons far outpace other coupon categories, and that is good news for Coupons.Com, which is a major player in the digital coupon segment.
Coupons.Com, a $1.14 billion company, operates digital promotion that connects brands and retailers with the consumers through coupons. It has more than 2,000 brands that it serves. The company reported a loss of $0.09 per share in its 2Q2014, which was behind the consensus estimate of a loss of $0.04 per share. However, revenue in the quarter was up more than 32% to $51.70 million, which also ahead of the consensus estimate of $51.64 million.
Varied views
Analysts are not unanimous on the prospects of Coupons.Com Inc (NYSE:COUP). While Bank of America (BAC) just made a bullish case for the coupon company, analysts at Vertical Group recently issued a bearish note on the stock. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock and even trimmed their target price to $11 from $17.50. Vertical Group noted that Coupons.Com had already hit their target price, and they think the stock is likely to trend downward.
