Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) Short Interest Up 27.6% in July

Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 18,350,000 shares, a growth of 27.6% from the June 30th total of 14,380,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,450,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days. Approximately 7.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Match Group from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Match Group from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of Match Group from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 13th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Match Group from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Match Group from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Match Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.79.

Match Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MTCH opened at $33.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.43, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.49. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.41. Match Group has a one year low of $27.66 and a one year high of $49.24.

Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.04. Match Group had a negative return on equity of 433.59% and a net margin of 19.03%. The company had revenue of $860.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $855.77 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. Match Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Match Group will post 2.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Match Group during the second quarter worth about $100,848,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Match Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $112,903,000. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its position in shares of Match Group by 17,295.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 2,155,632 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $78,678,000 after buying an additional 2,143,240 shares during the last quarter. Kodai Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Match Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,613,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Match Group by 290.8% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,566,334 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,165,576 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.05% of the company’s stock.

About Match Group

Match Group, Inc engages in the provision of dating products. Its portfolio of brands includes Tinder, Hinge, Match, Meetic, OkCupid, Pairs, Plenty Of Fish, Azar, BLK, and Hakuna, as well as a various other brands, each built to increase users' likelihood of connecting with others. Its services are available in over 40 languages to users worldwide.