Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ:WB) gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $9.27, but opened at $8.75. Weibo shares last traded at $8.8860, with a volume of 174,269 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Weibo in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.00.

Weibo Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 3.39, a quick ratio of 3.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.29. The company has a market cap of $2.17 billion, a PE ratio of 5.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.20.

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The information services provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.07). Weibo had a net margin of 25.55% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The business had revenue of $473.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $444.28 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Weibo Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Weibo Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 17th will be given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 687.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 17th. Weibo’s payout ratio is presently 34.71%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WealthCollab LLC boosted its stake in shares of Weibo by 50.1% during 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. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Weibo by 4.7% during the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after buying an additional 1,860 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its position in Weibo by 12.1% during the third quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 21,009 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $261,000 after acquiring an additional 2,270 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its stake in Weibo by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 18,674 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $233,000 after acquiring an additional 2,378 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its stake in Weibo by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 229,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,350,000 after acquiring an additional 2,463 shares during the period. 68.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.