Wall Street Zen Upgrades WEBTOON Entertainment (NASDAQ:WBTN) to Hold

Key Points

• WEBTOON Entertainment (NASDAQ: WBTN) was upgraded from a "strong sell" to a "hold" rating by Wall Street Zen, reflecting a more optimistic outlook for the company.
• Analysts have set varied price targets for WEBTOON, with Morgan Stanley at $11.00, Evercore ISI at $23.00, and Goldman Sachs at $15.00, leading to a current average target of $15.43.
• WEBTOON reported a quarterly revenue of $348.27 million with an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.07, beating expectations and showing an 8.5% increase from the previous year.

WEBTOON Entertainment (NASDAQ:WBTN - Get Free Report) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report released on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on WBTN. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on WEBTOON Entertainment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI upped their price target on WEBTOON Entertainment from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup began coverage on WEBTOON Entertainment in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. They set a "buy" rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on WEBTOON Entertainment from $11.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.43.

WEBTOON Entertainment Stock Performance

Shares of WEBTOON Entertainment stock opened at $14.97 on Friday. WEBTOON Entertainment has a 52-week low of $6.75 and a 52-week high of $18.45. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $9.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.44 and a beta of 1.12.

WEBTOON Entertainment (NASDAQ:WBTN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.05. WEBTOON Entertainment had a negative return on equity of 0.13% and a negative net margin of 7.24%. The business had revenue of $348.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $341.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that WEBTOON Entertainment will post -0.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WEBTOON Entertainment

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WBTN. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment by 8.6% during the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 9,816 shares of the company's stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 774 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment by 59.6% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,375 shares of the company's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,261 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment by 37.8% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 8,168 shares of the company's stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 2,240 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment by 8.3% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 35,310 shares of the company's stock worth $271,000 after purchasing an additional 2,709 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of WEBTOON Entertainment by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 414,886 shares of the company's stock worth $5,635,000 after purchasing an additional 2,755 shares in the last quarter.

WEBTOON Entertainment Company Profile

WEBTOON Entertainment Inc operates a storytelling platform worldwide. The company's platform allows a community of creators and users to discover, create, and share new content. Its platform offers stories primarily in two ways, including web-comics, a graphical comic-like medium; and web-novels, which are text-based stories.

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