Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Downgraded by Zacks Research to “Strong Sell”

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on WB. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.80 price objective on shares of Weibo in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Weibo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.90.

Weibo Price Performance

WB opened at $7.66 on Tuesday. Weibo has a one year low of $7.59 and a one year high of $12.96. 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 $8.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 0.20.

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The information services provider reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.02). Weibo had a net margin of 21.15% and a return on equity of 9.90%. The company had revenue of $421.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $416.76 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. Weibo’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Weibo will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weibo

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Krane Funds Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Weibo by 25.0% in the third quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 4,676,063 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,983,000 after purchasing an additional 934,898 shares during the period. Causeway Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Saba Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. FIL Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Weibo during the fourth quarter worth $16,693,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of Weibo by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,596,371 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,315,000 after acquiring an additional 218,666 shares in the last quarter. 68.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.