Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Reaches New 1-Year Low – What’s Next?

Shares of Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ:WB) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $8.06 and last traded at $8.2370, with a volume of 125647 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.12.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Weibo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Weibo has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.00.

Weibo Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $8.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 3.39 and a current ratio of 3.39. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.83, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.22.

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 19th. The information services provider reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.07). Weibo had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 25.55%.The company had revenue of $473.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $444.28 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Weibo Corporation will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Weibo Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 17th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. This represents a yield of 690.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 17th. Weibo’s payout ratio is presently 34.71%.

Institutional Trading of Weibo

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Krane Funds Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Weibo by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 4,676,063 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,983,000 after buying an additional 934,898 shares in the last quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Weibo by 11.7% during the third quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC now owns 2,952,249 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,608,000 after acquiring an additional 308,531 shares during the period. Saba Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in Weibo by 21.0% during the first quarter. Saba Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,437,357 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $21,327,000 after acquiring an additional 422,294 shares during the period. FIL Ltd bought a new position in Weibo in the 4th quarter worth about $16,693,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 218,666 shares during the period. 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.