Arizona State Retirement System Buys New Stake in Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL)

Arizona State Retirement System bought a new stake in Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 809 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Sezzle by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,697 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,294,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Sezzle in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Sezzle by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,304 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,613,000 after buying an additional 1,378 shares during the last quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Sezzle by 21.5% during the 4th quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. now owns 8,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,531 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Sezzle by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $918,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the period. 2.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sezzle Stock Up 7.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:SEZL opened at $232.51 on Friday. Sezzle Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.39 and a 1-year high of $477.52. The stock has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.74 and a beta of 9.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 2.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $259.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $252.93.

Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $4.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.08 by $1.31. Sezzle had a net margin of 25.29% and a return on equity of 101.18%. The company had revenue of $271.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.90 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Sezzle Inc. will post 9.77 EPS for the current year.

Sezzle announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 4.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Sezzle

In related news, CFO Karen Hartje sold 3,457 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.32, for a total value of $1,093,518.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 35,121 shares in the company, valued at $11,109,474.72. This trade represents a 8.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 57.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SEZL. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $377.00 price target (up previously from $372.00) on shares of Sezzle in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Northland Securities increased their price target on shares of Sezzle from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Sezzle Company Profile

Sezzle Inc operates as a technology-enabled payments company primarily in the United States and Canada. The company provides payment solution in-store and at online retail stores; and through proprietary payments solution that connects consumers with merchants. It also offers Sezzle Platform that provides a payments solution for consumers that extends credit at the point-of-sale allowing consumers to purchase and receive the ordered merchandise at the time of sale while paying in installments over time; Pay-in-Four, which allows consumers to pay a fourth of the purchase price up front and then another fourth of the purchase price every two weeks thereafter over a total of six weeks; Pay-in-Full that allows consumers to pay for the full value of their order up-front through the Sezzle Platform without the extension of credit; and Pay-in-Two and other alternative installment options, which allow consumer to pay half of the value of their order up-front and the second half in two weeks.