Oppenheimer analyst Jed Kelly maintained a Buy rating on LendingClub Corp (NYSE: LC) today and set a price target of $5. The company’s shares closed yesterday at $2.82, close to its 52-week low of $2.57.
Kelly observed:
“We are maintaining our $5 PT and Outperform rating after LC reported 1Q EBITDA $8M above the Street on improving advertising ROIs. Management maintained FY guidance, despite the beat, on uncertainties in tightening credit conditions and gains on asset sales. Just ~7-8% of applications approved, indicating focus on investor returns and difficulties qualifying traffic. The FTC lawsuit having minimal impact on core operations. Management increased pricing by 10-45bps on A-C loans, likely curbing some near-term top-line growth, but trading at 5x our ’19E EV/EBITDA versus our expectations for ’17-19E EBITDA to grow 53%, we see multiple expansion on scaling to profitability without being burdened by growth multiples at current levels.”
According to TipRanks.com, Kelly is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 5.4% and a 55.2% success rate. Kelly covers the Services sector, focusing on stocks such as Booking Holdings Inc, TripAdvisor Inc, and Ctripcom.
Currently, the analyst consensus on LendingClub Corp is Moderate Buy and the average price target is $5.21, representing an 84.8% upside.
In a report issued on April 26, Maxim Group also reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $6 price target.
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The company has a one-year high of $6.56 and a one-year low of $2.57. Currently, LendingClub Corp has an average volume of 5.97M.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 33 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of LC in relation to earlier this year.
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LendingClub Corp. engages in the operation of an online credit marketplace for borrowers and investors. It offers personal, business, auto refinance, and K-12 education loans; and patient solutions. The company was founded by Renaud Laplanche in October 2006 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
