Is It Time To Swipe Right On Match Group Stock?

A little over two years ago, IAC completed a full spin-off of its interest in dating app giant Match Group (MTCH) with the stock around $100 per share and a ~$30 billion equity value (a partial spin was consummated in 2015). As a holder of IAC at the time, I felt MTCH was priced fully and sold the MTCH shortly thereafter. Lately though the stock has been trading extremely weakly as revenue growth slows down (Tinder and other apps are reaching a more mature state). Match’s stock chart looks more like a profitless tech stock in the current market environment, but in reality this is a really “GARPy” situation because MTCH generates prolific free cash flow and has ever since it started trading on its own in 2015. At the current $59 price, the equity is valued at about $17 billion with annual free cash flow of $800-$900 million, which means it trades at a market discount on that metric. Given their dominant position in the dating space, this company doesn’t need to trade based on revenue growth to work very well for investors. I expect robust share buybacks and strategic M&A to aid in growing per-share cash flow and earnings for many years to come and it appears the current sell-off is letting new holders get in at a very good price if they are so inclined. Count me as part of that group. Full Disclosure: Long shares of MTCH at the time of writing, but positions may change at any time