Virtu Financial LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Hello Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MOMO)

Virtu Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hello Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MOMO) by 31.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,390 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,581 shares during the quarter. Virtu Financial LLC’s holdings in Hello Group were worth $218,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Hello Group in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in Hello Group by 10,987.1% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 10,311 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 10,218 shares during the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Hello Group in the fourth quarter worth $79,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Hello Group in the fourth quarter worth $124,000. Finally, Moody Aldrich Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Hello Group in the fourth quarter worth $131,000. 50.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Hello Group Price Performance

Hello Group stock opened at $6.17 on Friday. Hello Group Inc. has a one year low of $4.79 and a one year high of $11.12. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $5.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 2.36 and a quick ratio of 2.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $894.03 million, a P/E ratio of 5.61, a PEG ratio of 1.41 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 the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.48 billion. Hello Group had a return on equity of 13.61% and a net margin of 13.38%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Hello Group Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current year.

Hello Group Cuts Dividend

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

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.