What's Going On With Chinese Social Media Firm Hello Group Stock Thursday?

Hello Group Inc MOMO reported a fourth-quarter fiscal 2023 net revenue decline of 6.5% year-on-year to $423.0 million, beating the consensus of $405.6 million.

China’s mobile-based social and entertainment services provider reported an adjusted net income per ADS of $0.37, beating the consensus of $0.34. The stock price plunged after the results.

Drivers: Monthly Active Users (MAU) on the Tantan application were 13.7 million in December 2023, down from 18.4 million in December 2022.

Its Momo app’s total number of paying users declined from 7.8 million in Q4 fiscal 2022 to 7.4 million in Q4 fiscal 2023. Tantan had 1.2 million paying users for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 versus 1.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Segments: Revenues from the Live video service declined by 11.6% Y/Y to $214.6 million, Total value-added service decreased by 1.7% Y/Y to $200.7 million, Mobile marketing increased by 36.4% Y/Y to $6.3 million, and Mobile games rose 2.4% Y/Y to $0.8 million.

Net revenues from the Momo segment declined by 4.8% Y/Y to $384.3 million, while the Tantan segment revenues decreased by 21.5% to $38.3 million.

Adjusted income from operations improved to $93.6 million.

Hello Group held $1.9 billion in cash and equivalents and generated $58.6 million in operating cash flow.

Special Dividend: The board declared a special cash dividend of $0.54 per ADS, or $0.27 per ordinary share, payable on April 30, 2024, to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 12, 2024.

Buyback: On March 14, 2024, Hello Group’s board extended the share buyback limit from $200 million to $286.1 million and extended the program term from June 6, 2024, to June 30, 2026.

Outlook: Hello sees first-quarter revenue of RMB 2.45 billion – RMB 2.55 billion (a decrease of 13.1% – 9.5% year over year) versus the consensus of $420.35 million.

Investors can gain access to the stock via IShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF ECNS and IShares Robotics And Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF IRBO.

Price Action: MOMO shares traded lower by 17.47% at $6.33 premarket on the last check Thursday.

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