Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Upgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold” Rating

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

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on WB. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Weibo in a report on Friday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $9.80 price target on shares of Weibo in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Weibo presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.90.

Weibo Stock Down 1.1%

WB stock opened at $8.08 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.76. The company has a market cap of $1.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.65, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 has a fifty-two week low of $7.09 and a fifty-two week high of $12.96.

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). Weibo had a net margin of 21.15% and a return on equity of 9.90%. The firm had revenue of $421.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.76 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Weibo will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weibo

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Weibo by 337.5% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,876 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 2,990 shares in the last quarter. WealthCollab LLC raised its position in shares of Weibo by 50.1% in the 4th quarter. WealthCollab LLC now owns 5,123 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,709 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new position in Weibo in the second quarter worth about $61,000. FourThought Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Weibo in the 4th quarter worth approximately $110,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Weibo during the first quarter valued at $117,000. 68.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Weibo

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.