Hello Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MOMO) Short Interest Update

Hello Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MOMO) saw a large decrease in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,470,000 shares, a decrease of 29.2% from the May 31st total of 3,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,960,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MOMO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Hello Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $6.00 in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley downgraded Hello Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Hello Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Hello Group from $6.40 to $5.70 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, Benchmark reduced their target price on shares of Hello Group from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.90.

Institutional Trading of Hello Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Hello Group by 26.4% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 7,377,789 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,781,000 after purchasing an additional 1,538,632 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Hello Group by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,274,996 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,711,000 after buying an additional 555,602 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Hello Group by 33.5% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,277,629 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,144,000 after buying an additional 571,840 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Hello Group by 994.2% during the 1st quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,617,308 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,043,000 after acquiring an additional 1,469,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in Hello Group by 294.4% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,238,483 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,645,000 after acquiring an additional 924,447 shares during the last quarter. 50.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Hello Group Stock Performance

Shares of MOMO traded up $0.11 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $6.12. 1,041,297 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,743,414. The company has a quick ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 2.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $6.18. Hello Group has a twelve month low of $4.79 and a twelve month high of $11.12. The company has a market cap of $886.79 million, a P/E ratio of 5.56, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.59.

Hello Group (NASDAQ:MOMO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 28th. The information services provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.02. Hello Group had a net margin of 13.38% and a return on equity of 13.61%. The firm had revenue of $2.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Hello Group will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Hello Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 12th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 11th. This represents a yield of 8.97%.

About Hello Group

Hello Group Inc provides mobile-based social and entertainment services in the People's Republic of China. It operates in three segments: Momo, Tantan, and QOOL. The company offers Momo, a mobile application that connects people and facilitates social interactions based on location, interests, and various online recreational activities, including live talent shows, short videos, social games, as well as other video- and audio-based interactive experiences, such as online parties, mobile karaoke and user participated reality shows; Tantan, a social and dating application; and other applications under the Hertz, Soulchill, Duidui, and Tietie names.