LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) CFO Noel Bertram Watson Sells 15,000 Shares of Stock

LegalZoom.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:LZ) CFO Noel Bertram Watson sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.45, for a total transaction of $96,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 2,041,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,169,913.15. This represents a 0.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Noel Bertram Watson also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, February 18th, Noel Bertram Watson sold 15,000 shares of LegalZoom.com stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.96, for a total transaction of $104,400.00.

LegalZoom.com Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LZ traded down $0.21 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $6.37. The stock had a trading volume of 4,133,575 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,299,159. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $6.15 and its 200 day moving average is $8.01. LegalZoom.com, Inc. has a 52 week low of $5.28 and a 52 week high of $12.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.33.

LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $206.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $202.14 million. LegalZoom.com had a return on equity of 11.53% and a net margin of 1.46%.The business’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.13 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that LegalZoom.com, Inc. will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

LegalZoom.com declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 19th that allows the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of LegalZoom.com

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LZ. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in LegalZoom.com by 187.4% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,509,891 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,231,000 after buying an additional 1,636,487 shares in the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors grew its holdings in LegalZoom.com by 5.6% during the first quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 74,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 3,953 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of LegalZoom.com by 83.2% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 101,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $578,000 after purchasing an additional 46,285 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of LegalZoom.com by 1,656.5% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 188,505 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,069,000 after purchasing an additional 177,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of LegalZoom.com during the first quarter valued at about $2,918,000. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LZ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut LegalZoom.com from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Zacks Research raised shares of LegalZoom.com from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of LegalZoom.com from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $6.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of LegalZoom.com in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of LegalZoom.com from $14.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $9.25.

About LegalZoom.com

LegalZoom.com, Inc (NASDAQ: LZ) operates as a leading online legal technology company that provides a broad range of legal and business services to individuals, families and small businesses. Through its digital platform, the company offers customized legal documents and filing services, including business formation (LLCs, corporations and nonprofits), estate planning (wills and trusts), intellectual property protection (trademarks and copyrights), and ongoing compliance support. LegalZoom also connects customers with independent attorneys for consultations on matters such as family law, immigration and real estate.

Founded in 2001 by entrepreneurs Brian Lee, Brian P.