Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Reaches New 52-Week Low – Here’s What Happened

Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ:WB)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $7.44 and last traded at $7.50, with a volume of 1579442 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $7.67.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on WB. Zacks Research cut Weibo from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $9.80 price objective on shares of Weibo in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Weibo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two research 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.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.90.

Weibo Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.38. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.20. The company has a current ratio of 3.02, a quick ratio of 3.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The information services provider reported $0.34 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $416.76 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Weibo Corporation will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weibo

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Weibo during the first quarter worth about $117,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Weibo by 497.1% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 720,348 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,865,000 after buying an additional 599,700 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of Weibo in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,502,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Weibo in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Weibo by 139.5% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 47,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $456,000 after acquiring an additional 27,868 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.77% of the company’s stock.

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.