Deutsche Bank Maintains On Groupon Amid Lower-Than-Expected Earnings

Today in Deutsche Banks periodical DB Today - US, the firm maintained its Buy rating on Groupon GRPN but lowered its price target from $16 to $12. Deutsche Banks's Ross Sandler is staying positive on the longer term potential of Groupon, despite, lower-than-expected fourth quarter billings, gross profit and EBITDA. Sandler believes the "choppiness" in the fourth quarter has been already been priced in and noted that Groupon beat the firms estimates for Goods across all regions in the fourth quarter by 2 percent. In addition to this, Sandler also pointed to the continued rapid growth of Groupon's mobile segment as a reason to remain optimistic. He did, however, acknowledge that this growth has been more than offset by declines in non-mobile billing. At last check, the Pre-market for Groupon shares was $8.97 down almost 13 percent from the previous days close.