Investors are falling head over heels for Match.
The social stock has rallied 35 percent this year, a surprise move besting even the well-publicized rebound in Facebook. It has also bounced than 70 percent off its 52-week low set in November.
But, one market watcher isn’t in love with Match.
“I’m not as crazy about this stock,” Erin Gibbs, portfolio manager at S&P Global, told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday. “Really what you’re seeing for this year is just a recovery of an enormous amount of volatility from last year.”
Over 2018, Match had 25 sessions with moves of 5 percent or more. By comparison, the Nasdaq saw that kind of a move just once.
This rally has also taken it up to roughly where Wall Street analysts expected, said Gibbs. Analysts have an average price target of $58.35 on the stock, according to FactSet, less than $1 above Match’s Thursday close.
“Growth is expected to be about 15 percent this year which is good but it’s not great for a midcap stock and we kind of want something a little higher especially for that industry,” added Gibbs. “Already considering the valuations and just where it is we’d like to see another catalyst that could really make it grow or really start expanding its margins, and we haven’t seen that yet.”
However, Match’s outperformance has impressed Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com.
“What a surprising stock in an otherwise tough tape,” Gordon said Thursday on “Trading Nation.” “Where the overall market into the end of 2018 into 2019 showed a lot of weakness, we have Match coming back here looking for a solid breakout.”
The Nasdaq has bounced nearly 20 percent off its Christmas Eve lows. Over that same period, Match has exploded 53 percent.
“If the overall market can stabilize in this tricky kind of overall zone that we’re in, I’d say you’re looking at Match on the upside,” said Gordon. “There’s a lot of relative strength there.”
