Legal & General Group Plc Trims Stake in NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its position in NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) by 20.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 193,330 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 48,255 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in NetEase were worth $17,247,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTES. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of NetEase by 88.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,365,464 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $211,023,000 after buying an additional 1,107,363 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in NetEase during the fourth quarter worth about $62,593,000. Davis Selected Advisers purchased a new stake in NetEase in the fourth quarter worth about $53,287,000. National Bank of Canada FI bought a new position in shares of NetEase during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,710,000. Finally, Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of NetEase by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. now owns 3,632,870 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $324,088,000 after purchasing an additional 354,273 shares during the last quarter. 11.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on NetEase from $82.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Benchmark lifted their price target on NetEase from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of NetEase from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetEase from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.57.

NetEase Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTES opened at $99.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $63.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.19. NetEase, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.85 and a fifty-two week high of $110.15.

NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.14. NetEase had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.16 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that NetEase, Inc. will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current year.

NetEase Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th were paid a $0.435 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.75%. NetEase’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 76.45%.

NetEase Profile

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.