Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Still a Buy?

Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ:WB) saw strong trading volume on Thursday . 786,613 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 33% from the previous session’s volume of 1,176,183 shares.The stock last traded at $7.3750 and had previously closed at $7.42.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WB. Zacks Research lowered Weibo from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $9.80 target price on shares of Weibo in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Weibo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.90.

Weibo Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $8.20 and a 200 day moving average of $9.37. The company has a quick ratio of 3.02, a current ratio of 3.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a PE ratio of 5.13, a PEG ratio of 4.41 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 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $421.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $416.76 million. Weibo had a net margin of 21.15% and a return on equity of 9.90%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Weibo Corporation will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weibo

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Weibo by 337.5% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,876 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 2,990 shares in the last quarter. WealthCollab LLC increased its position 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 valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,709 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Weibo during the 2nd quarter valued at about $61,000. FourThought Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Weibo during the 4th quarter valued at about $110,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Weibo in the 1st quarter worth approximately $117,000. 68.77% of the stock is 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.