By Ronnie Harui
Weibo Corp.'s Hong Kong-listed shares slumped Thursday, possibly on disappointment that the company didn't announce a share buyback on Wednesday.
Its shares were recently 11% lower at HK$151.60 (US$19.31) after earlier sliding as much as 13% to HK$149.00, its lowest intraday level since Jan. 3.
The Chinese social-media giant said after the market's close Wednesday that fourth-quarter revenue dropped 27% to US$448.0 million, owing to significantly lower advertising and marketing revenues. The company attributed the revenue decline to disruptions to it and its advertisers from Covid-19 control measures and infections in major areas in China.
The drop in Weibo's fourth-quarter revenue was in line with market expectations, said Nomura analysts in a research report. But investors which the Japanese brokerage spoke with had expected the company could use its ample cash to carry out more proactive share buybacks as announced by its peers including Tencent Holdings Ltd., the analysts added.
"We estimate that it has spent less than 20% of the announced amount on repurchases, as of December 2022, which in our view appears too little," the analysts said.
Write to Ronnie Harui at ronnie.harui@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 01, 2023 22:50 ET (03:50 GMT)
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