Investment in Care.com may show an increasing appetite for non-conforming stocks.
Inside investment in the company Care.com is catching attention from investors … The stock saw a significant bump this morning amid a general market downturn.
Overall, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen a couple of hundred points over the past month, but within the general melee, some stocks are still attractive to some investors…
One example is Care.com. StreetInsider.com reported on August 14 that director George Bell bought 27,500 shares of stock earlier in the month, with an average price per share of $9.00.
Other Investor Plays
The move roughly doubles Bell’s Care.com holdings, but the firm’s director isn’t the only party that’s looking to add Care.com stock to a portfolio. Documentation from the portfolio of Aperio Group shows that the company bought CRCM strategically. And reports yesterday cited Pacer Advisors buying $79,000 of CRCM in the second quarter.
The company’s overall premise is relatively straightforward. Care.com is one of the many new firms based fundamentally on connecting service providers with customers.
At the Care.com website, users can get quotes on various types of family-care needs — from pet care to housekeeping to senior care and more. The play to make these types of services convenient and accessible to families that struggle with work/life balance or other life complexities may be a reasonable proposal…
Other digital firms like Uber and Lyft dig into the markets based on similar customer-connection models and consumer needs.
Volatility in Play
The service platform also seems to be popular. This morning, CRCM shot up to over $9.80 after a prior close at $9.63. That turned a few heads. However, analysts cite a lot of volatility in Care.com’s share-price history.
In addition to looking at options tables, where volatility indicators are readily available, investors can take a longer view of the price history chart. The charts show that CRCM has spiked over $10.00 this month. That’s after starting out 30 days ago just about where the price is now.
Looking back further, a drop in May from $16.00, and another later in the month from $14.00, put CRCM in its current range — unless the breakout pushes the stock a lot higher. CRCM, in fact, started out March at around $25.00. That can mean that any current rally is against the slow and steady long-term grain.
Then there’s the year-over-year value. CRCM was over $19.00 a year ago. It then crested at that $25 mark at the end of February.
But looking back even further, the $25 value represents all-time highs for the stock, which was much lower the year before, with a steady build-up to $20, then $22.
On the other hand, there’s also CRCM’s relatively low beta score. That can mean that it just doesn’t swing with the general market as much as many larger and more established blue-chip stocks.
That’s not necessarily a bad point … It could be a powerful and attractive force for investors looking for safe-haven alternatives in a time when wild market swings disrupt the Dow and S&P 500. CRCM may see more action as the market day develops.
