Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH)

Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 30,516 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 233% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,172 call options.

Institutional Trading of Match Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Match Group by 24.5% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 410,938 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,908,000 after acquiring an additional 80,855 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Match Group by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,358,501 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,173,966,000 after purchasing an additional 416,140 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in Match Group by 146.1% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 140,090 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,929,000 after purchasing an additional 83,166 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Match Group by 117.5% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 218,694 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,927,000 after purchasing an additional 118,142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Match Group by 98.0% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 79,526 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,885,000 after purchasing an additional 39,357 shares in the last quarter. 94.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Truist Financial increased their price target on Match Group from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Match Group from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Match Group from $33.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Match Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Match Group from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.19.

Match Group Trading Down 18.6 %

NASDAQ MTCH traded down $7.04 on Thursday, hitting $30.84. 9,314,612 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,196,838. Match Group has a 1-year low of $27.66 and a 1-year high of $42.42. The company has a market cap of $7.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $36.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.99.

Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.05. Match Group had a net margin of 18.72% and a negative return on equity of 467.66%. The company had revenue of $895.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $900.33 million. Research analysts anticipate that Match Group will post 1.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.