Morgan Stanley Lowers NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) Price Target to $120.00

NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) had its price objective cut by Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $120.00 in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded NetEase from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetEase currently has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $126.00.

NetEase Stock Up 0.0 %

NTES opened at $92.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.58. NetEase has a twelve month low of $80.79 and a twelve month high of $118.89. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $104.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $103.46.

NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.62 by ($0.20). NetEase had a net margin of 28.39% and a return on equity of 24.36%. The firm had revenue of $3.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.96 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetEase will post 7.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetEase Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.08 per share. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This is an increase from NetEase’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetEase’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.09%.

Institutional Trading of NetEase

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of NetEase by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,333,468 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $242,110,000 after purchasing an additional 98,751 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in NetEase by 226.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,896,495 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $176,677,000 after acquiring an additional 1,315,410 shares in the last quarter. Tairen Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of NetEase during the fourth quarter valued at $164,307,000. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of NetEase by 73.2% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,572,418 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $146,486,000 after purchasing an additional 664,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetEase by 98.9% during the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,484,772 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,563,000 after purchasing an additional 738,249 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.07% of the company’s stock.

About NetEase

NetEase, Inc engages in online games, music streaming, online intelligent learning services, and internet content services businesses in China and internationally . The company operates through Games and Related Value-Added Services, Youdao, Cloud Music, and Innovative Businesses and Others segments.