WEBTOON Entertainment (NASDAQ:WBTN) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:WBTN)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on the stock from $15.00 to $11.00. The stock had previously closed at $9.85, but opened at $8.59. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. WEBTOON Entertainment shares last traded at $8.61, with a volume of 217,511 shares.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on WBTN. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of WEBTOON Entertainment in a report on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of WEBTOON Entertainment from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of WEBTOON Entertainment from $13.00 to $10.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of WEBTOON Entertainment from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.36.

Insider Activity

In other WEBTOON Entertainment news, insider Junkoo Kim bought 11,372 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $8.73 per share, for a total transaction of $99,277.56. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 498,812 shares in the company, valued at $4,354,628.76. This trade represents a 2.33% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.45% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WEBTOON Entertainment

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WBTN. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in WEBTOON Entertainment by 1,404.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 523,589 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,990,000 after acquiring an additional 488,779 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought a new stake in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment during the 3rd quarter valued at about $75,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment during the 4th quarter valued at about $892,000. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment during the 4th quarter valued at about $306,000. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment by 24.4% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 21,423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 4,206 shares in the last quarter.

WEBTOON Entertainment Trading Up 10.3%

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $8.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.78. The stock has a market cap of $1.16 billion and a P/E ratio of -6.17.

WEBTOON Entertainment (NASDAQ:WBTN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $352.85 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $351.00 million. As a group, analysts expect that WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. will post -0.26 earnings per share for the current year.

WEBTOON Entertainment Company Profile

WEBTOON Entertainment Inc operates a storytelling platform worldwide. The company’s platform allows a community of creators and users to discover, create, and share new content. Its platform offers stories primarily in two ways, including web-comics, a graphical comic-like medium; and web-novels, which are text-based stories.