Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Here’s What Happened

Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ:WB) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $7.52 and last traded at $7.5750, with a volume of 483811 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $7.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WB. Weiss Ratings lowered Weibo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $9.80 price target on shares of Weibo in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Weibo from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Weibo currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.90.

Weibo Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.48. The stock has a market cap of $1.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.26, a PEG ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 0.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 3.02 and a current ratio of 3.02.

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The information services provider reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $421.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $416.76 million. Weibo had a return on equity of 9.90% and a net margin of 21.15%.Weibo’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Weibo Corporation will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Weibo Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 17th were issued a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 17th. This represents a dividend yield of 690.0%. Weibo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.26%.

Institutional Trading of Weibo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Krane Funds Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Weibo by 25.0% in the third quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 4,676,063 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,983,000 after acquiring an additional 934,898 shares during the last quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Weibo by 11.7% in the third quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC now owns 2,952,249 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,608,000 after acquiring an additional 308,531 shares during the last quarter. Saba Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Weibo by 21.0% in the first quarter. Saba Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,437,357 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,327,000 after acquiring an additional 422,294 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Weibo in the fourth quarter valued at about $16,693,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of Weibo by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,596,371 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $16,315,000 after acquiring an additional 218,666 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.77% of the company’s stock.

Weibo Company Profile

Weibo Corporation operates one of China’s leading social media and microblogging platforms under the brand name Weibo. Launched in August 2009 by Sina Corporation, Weibo enables users to create, share and engage with short-form posts in real time. The platform supports text, images, videos and live streams, and offers features such as trending topics, hashtag campaigns and public discussion forums to facilitate user interaction and content discovery.

Weibo’s product suite extends beyond basic social networking to include digital content services such as live streaming, online games, value-added messaging and e-commerce integrations.