Sina's Weibo Stake to Fall 20%, Maxim Group Says

On Tuesday, Maxim Group downgraded shares of

from Buy to Hold and removed the $90 price target. Shares of Sina are down 3.5 percent to $66.50 following the downgrade. Analyst Echo He believes Sina's valuation “should be affected by Alibaba's (private) purchase of the Weibo IPO and the reduction of Sina's equity ownership of Weibo.” “80% of Weibo shares to be purchased by Alibaba will come from Sina, and 20% will be issued by Weibo,” said the analyst. Alibaba will purchase the shares “either 15% lower than Weibo's IPO price or one that values Weibo at $5.5B, whichever is lower,” according to He.