Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Raised to Hold at Zacks Research

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) was upgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on WB. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $9.80 price objective on shares of Weibo in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Weibo in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.90.

Weibo Stock Performance

WB opened at $8.08 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $7.69 and a 200 day moving average of $8.76. Weibo has a fifty-two week low of $7.09 and a fifty-two week high of $12.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.65, a PEG ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.18. 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 quarterly earnings data 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 during 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%.The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Weibo will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Weibo in the first quarter valued at $117,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Weibo by 497.1% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 720,348 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,865,000 after acquiring an additional 599,700 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Weibo during the second quarter worth approximately $2,502,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Weibo during the 2nd quarter worth $61,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its holdings 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 during the last quarter. 68.77% of the stock is currently 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.