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Dating conglomerate Match Group ( MTCH ) stock tumbled intraday Thursday after mixed Q4 results Wednesday afternoon. The company missed revenue expectations but beat what Wall Street estimated for earnings. The company reported revenue of $268 million, up 12% from the year-earlier quarter but below the $277 million that analysts had predicted. The company’s earnings per share ex items came in at 24 cents, above the 20 cents that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had estimated and down 25% from a year earlier. Match Group stock plummeted 11% to about 9.50 in the stock market today , dipping as low as 8.75 in the morning. The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 55, where 99 is the highest. These results represent the first time that Match Group has reported since the InterActiveCorp ( IAC ) unit’s November IPO . UBS analyst Eric Sheridan wrote in a research note Thursday that “noise in the initial EPS report should confuse” from the firm’s long-term growth and value proposition for investors. He called Match Group executives “disciplined” in their investment approach and growth in the long run. In terms of the stock price, Sheridan said, “We think investors are already pricing in single-digit revenue growth,” adding that investors believe margins won’t improve in the future. But, Sheridan says, since the stock sits 20% above his worst-case scenario, with 70% upside to his price target of 18, the stock currently offers a compelling risk vs. reward scenario for investors. In prepared remarks on the company’s earnings call with analysts, Match Group executives said that the company expects dating revenue growth of between 5% and 7% in each quarter of 2016. Executives expect non-dating revenue to grow by “high single digits” in Q1, compared with the year-earlier quarter, and in the mid-double digits for the full year. Guidance implies 2016 dating revenue of $1.12 billion, up 22%, according to a Thursday research note from Cowen analyst John Blackledge. Scalper1 News
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