Groupon Shares Rise on 1Q Results, Analyst Upgrades

Shares of Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) shot up 14% Thursday morning as Wall Street cheered signs of progress revealed in the daily deals giant’s first-quarter results.

In response to Groupon’s stronger-than-expected 7.5% jump in revenue, a slew of analysts upgraded their price targets on the company, which earlier this year ousted its CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason.

“The bottom line is that the Groupon story may have several lumpy quarters as it gets back on track, but we believe the deal space is real and Groupon's leadership position will yield a growing, albeit slow, business in 2014 and 2015," Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst, wrote in a research note to clients, Reuters reported. Munster raised his price target on the stock to $9 from $7.

Analysts from RBC Capital Markets (NYSE:RY), Janney Capital Markets and Jefferies all hiked their price targets on Groupon to $6.

Reporting after Wednesday’s closing bell, Groupon reported first-quarter revenue of $601.5 million, solidly topping the Street’s view of $590 million. The daily deals company slashed its quarterly net loss to $4 million from $11.7 million the year before.

Shares of Chicago-based Groupon soared 12.79% to $6.30 Thursday morning, extending their 2013 rally to nearly 30%. However, Groupon remains off 37% over the past 12 months and is still trading well below its November 2011 initial public offering price of $20.