Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Hits New 1-Year Low – Time to Sell?

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WB shares. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Weibo from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.80 price target on shares of Weibo in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Weibo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Weibo presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.90.

Weibo Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 3.02 and a quick ratio of 3.02. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.46. The company has a market cap of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.34, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.20.

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

Weibo Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Weibo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Weibo in the first quarter worth about $117,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Weibo by 497.1% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 720,348 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,865,000 after purchasing an additional 599,700 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in Weibo during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,502,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Weibo during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $61,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Weibo by 139.5% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 47,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $456,000 after purchasing an additional 27,868 shares in the last quarter. 68.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.