Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, April 28 2023 @ 09:45 am
Last modified on Friday, April 28 2023 @ 11:02 am
One of Germany’s most prominent banks, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale, has reduced its shares of Match Group by 4.7 percent.
According to BestStocks.com, DekaBank now owns 178,837 shares which amounts to about $7.2 million, compared to the previous quarter in 2022 where it held 187,697 shares worth $11 million.
Match Group’s stock price fell 10.45 percent between March and April according to Investing.com, and has fallen 54.78 percent overall in the last year. In addition, a Goldman Sachs analyst has now adjusted its price target for Match Group stock, lowering it to $58, down from $65 earlier in the year. It still suggests the company’s stock is a buy, according to Market Screener.
Match Group is listed as a “moderate buy” among analysts according to Bloomberg.com, but several shareholders have now filed class-action lawsuits against the company for not being forthcoming about the problems with Tinder’s product rollouts. Tinder brings in the lion’s share of revenue for the company, and for the first time, the app saw a decline in Q4 2022.
Match Group has announced a refocus of its priorities since CEO Bernard Kim was hired to shake things up. In the last few months, he appointed its first-ever chief technology officer, and shared with investors that the company would be focusing on areas of revenue growth, including the Asian market, AI and technology development, Tinder, and growth apps like Hinge.
The company appointed Malgosia Green as CEO of Match Group Asia, and is moving her to Singapore to lead a 400-person team, including the South Korea-based social networking platform Hyperconnect that it acquired in recent years. Part of her mission is to leverage the technology developments across all Match Group brands.
BestStocks.com[*1] notes that analysts have “mixed opinions about the future growth prospects of [Match Group] across different platforms.” The company benefitted from pandemic lockdowns and its user base remains high, but economic pressures such as inflation have taken a hit to the company’s revenue stream, with fewer members paying extra for premium subscriptions or even in-app purchases, though some of these features remain in high demand, such as Super Likes.
Hinge has proven to be a major asset for Match Group, with soaring membership numbers and increasing revenue year over year. Match Group has recently launched a $50 per month premium subscription tier for the app for “motivated daters.”
The company also notes that it is testing a $500 per month VIP subscription service for Tinder, but has been vague about what it would offer.