Summer's here and love is in the air. Maybe. Leading dating site Match Group (MTCH) has seen its stock climb about 45% in three months, from 30.73 on May 15 to around 44 Friday afternoon. That's impressive. But to put that in perspective, Match stock is still way down from its all-time high 161.58, set in October 2021. Still, it's moving in the right direction again. On Friday it cleared a benchmark with a Relative Strength Rating jump from 79 to 83.
The upgraded 83 RS rating puts shares of Dallas-based Match in the top 17% of all stocks for price performance over the past year. It's a notable move because decades of market research shows that the best stocks often have an RS Rating above 80 as they launch their biggest price moves.
Match Stock Lifted After 536% Profit Jump
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One reason for Match stock's recent upward trajectory is that both earnings and sales grew last quarter after a few quarters of weaker results. Earnings in its most recent quarter reversed from an 11-cents-per-share loss a year ago to 48 cents per-share profit, ostensibly a 536% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 4% to $829.6 million. Though still small, that was the biggest sales increase in a year.
Among its other ratings Match has a weak 51 Earnings Per Share Rating, in part reflecting a 30% drop in EPS the quarter before last. It should be noted though that the quarter before that it put up 150% EPS growth. Match stock's Composite Rating is a mild 71. However, it has a B Accumulation/Distribution Rating, showing that institutional investors like ETFs and mutual funds are fairly aggressively buying its shares.
Match stock was down a bit Friday afternoon to around 44. It's not currently offering a proper buying opportunity. See if the stock goes on to build a base that could ignite a new run, like a three-weeks tight or a rebound off its 50-day or 200-day line.
Not An Internet Content Group Leader
Match stock earns the No. 20 rank among its peers in the 79-company Internet-Content industry group. Pinterest (PINS) and Alphabet (GOOG) are among the group's highest-rated stocks.
When searching for the best stocks to buy and watch, an important metric to consider is the stock's price strength relative to other stocks.
IBD's unique Relative Strength Rating measures market leadership with a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score. The grade shows how a stock's price behavior over the last 52 weeks holds up against all the other stocks in our database.
