Groupon Shares Down Once Again Friday

Things just keep getting worse for Groupon investors.

Shares of the Chicago-based daily deals site fell again Friday, closing down 0.88 percent at $16.81. Shares fell as low as $16.20 earlier in the day before the price went up near market close.

Friday's share price drop came after the shares fell below their IPO price on Wednesday, closing at $16.96. The company launched its initial public offering earlier this month at $20. On its first day of trading, the stock price went as high as $31.14 before closing at $26.11.

Analyst opinion on the IPO has been lukewarm. The company had initially hoped for a market value of $25 billion, but the value at the time of the IPO was on Nov. 4 was only $12.7 billion. Still, some analysts believe the company was overvalued at that level.

Groupon raised $700 million in the IPO, with insiders and prior investors retaining most of their shares. The underwriters were Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.

There has also been an unusual amount of short-selling on the stock, which likely means many investors are concerned about the direction of the company.

The stock market was down slightly Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down 0.23 percent at 11,231.94 and the Nasdaq closing down 0.75 percent at 2,441.51. The market closed at 1 p.m on Friday in celebration of the Thanksgiving weekend.