Mark Tepper, president of Strategic Wealth Partners, said he’d prefer to partner up with Match ahead of Bumble’s first earnings release as a publicly traded company. Look at the top three dating apps, Hinge, Tinder and Bumble, he said.
“Match Group owns Hinge and Tinder, so that’s two of the top three,” he told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday. “I’ve owned Match in the past, and it’s now pulled back to a level where I’ve actually considered getting back in. Right below $140 is where I’d get back in. When I look at Match, I just think it’s really a more attractive valuation, and that you’re going to get just as much growth as you’d get with Bumble.”
Match traded above $152 on Tuesday. The shares were up 4% for the session.
Still, Tepper is not ready to count Bumble out just yet.
“It’s too new. I’m going to wait and see whether or not they can execute, so I’m going to sit tight on that one. Once they show me that they are going to continue to have traction in the space, I’ll dip my toes in the water a little bit but I do prefer Match right here,” he said.
The growth potential for Bumble is “huge,” according to Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global and chief market strategist at Lido Advisors.
“By their own estimates, you’re talking about a potential addressable market that’s 980 million people. That’s a lot of people,” Sanchez said during the same segment. “While they have good penetration in the U.S., they are still expanding globally, looking at Asia, looking at Latin America.”
Its branding also helps to distinguish it among its competitors, said Sanchez. The app offers women the chance to approach first, a differentiator from other dating networks where either party can initiate a conversation.
“If you look at the way that the social conversation has been changing over the last five years, particularly with the #MeToo movement, female safety and female empowerment is going to be very strong branding. And then you take that branding and you put some extra rocket fuel behind it, which is the economic reopening at a time when people feel their loneliest and their most isolated, I think it is a very powerful combination,” Sanchez said.
Bumble, set to report after the bell Wednesday, is expected to post a net loss of 9 cents a share and sales of $163.3 million, according to FactSet. The company’s shares were up more than 5% to $63.65 on Tuesday.
