By Jaspreet Singh
(Reuters) -Bumble’s shares fell 28% on Wednesday after the dating app operator forecast first-quarter revenue below market estimates, as it continues to grapple with a slowdown in the growth of paying users.
Shares of the Austin, Texas-based company have slumped about 40% over the past 12 months. Bumble recently announced executive changes including the return of its founder Whitney Wolfe Herd as its chief executive in March.
Over the past year, the company has cut jobs, refreshed its Bumble app and expanded its signature “make the first move” feature to include “opening moves” that allow women to set a question that their potential matches can respond to for better conversations.
“There’s clearly more work to be done on the turnaround and we see visibility limited as management did not provide full-year guidance for the first time,” Citi analyst Ygal Arounian said.
The company is set to lose around $240 million in market value, if losses hold. As of last close, Bumble’s valuation stood at $876.3 million compared with Tinder-parent Match Group’s $8.85 billion.
“Tinder and Bumble teams are both focusing on recalibrating their apps to be better in tune with the preferences of generation Z. Younger users have somewhat soured on dating apps in many cases,” said M Science analyst Chandler Willison.
Bumble said it would discontinue its Fruitz and Official dating apps by the first half of this year.
“As we prioritize the execution of the important work we’re undertaking to reposition Bumble App, we have taken a hard look at how we’re allocating our resources across our portfolio,” said departing CEO Lidiane Jones.
At least nine brokerages cut their price target on Bumble after its latest earnings report.
Bumble currently trades at 9.98 times the estimates of its earnings for the next 12 months, compared with 16.51 times for bigger rival Match Group.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
