What Happened?
Shares of dating app company Match (NASDAQ: MTCH) jumped 5.5% in the morning session after it reported third-quarter earnings and stronger-than-expected profitability forecast for the upcoming quarter, showing progress on its turnaround strategy. The dating app parent announced third-quarter revenue of $914.3 million, up 2.1% year-over-year and in line with Wall Street's expectations. Also, investors were encouraged by the company's fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA guidance, which surpassed analysts' projections, signaling potential for improved profitability ahead. The company noted that the adoption of “Sparks”—a product feature and proxy for meaningful conversations—increased among Gen Z users, suggesting that core user experiences are resonating despite lower overall active users.
Is now the time to buy Match Group? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Match Group’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 9 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 12 months ago when the stock dropped 18.7% on the news that the company reported underwhelming third-quarter earnings that has the market questioning its turnaround story. Match provided revenue guidance for the next quarter which missed analysts' expectations, and its revenue growth was quite weak. The company stated that "Tinder MAU was down 9% Y/Y in Q3, which was the same rate of decline as in Q2, falling short of our expectations for continued improvement in Y/Y trends. From mid-September through October, we saw more press re on new users (registrations and reactivations) than we expected, which has led to pressure on MAU." On the other hand, it was good to see Match Group beat analysts' EBITDA expectations this quarter. Overall, this was a challenging quarter, and the turnaround is frankly not going well.
Match Group is up 1.9% since the beginning of the year, but at $33.24 per share, it is still trading 14.3% below its 52-week high of $38.77 from September 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Match Group’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $246.28.
The biggest winners—Microsoft, Alphabet, Coca-Cola, Monster Beverage—were all riding powerful megatrends before Wall Street caught on. We’ve just identified an under-the-radar profitable growth stock positioned at the center of the AI boom. Get it FREE here before the crowd discovers it. GO HERE NOW.
