Matrimony.com announces Rs 58.5 crore buyback; shares slide over 4%

Shares of Matrimony.com declined sharply on Monday even as the company announced a fresh share buyback. The stock was trading 4.29 per cent lower at Rs 522.55 on the NSE at 11:52 am IST, underperforming the broader market.

The company’s board has approved a buyback of up to 8.93 lakh equity shares at a price of Rs 655 per share, aggregating to Rs 58.5 crore. This is the third share buyback announced by the online matchmaking firm in the last three years. The record date for the buyback is yet to be announced.

In September 2024, Matrimony.com had announced a Rs 72 crore buyback, under which it repurchased 7.02 lakh equity shares between October 30 and November 6 at Rs 1,025 per share. The buyback price then was at a 27 per cent premium to the stock’s previous day’s closing price on the date of the announcement. Prior to that, the company had announced its first buyback in May 2022, amounting to Rs 75 crore at Rs 1,150 per share, offering a 71 per cent premium to the prior session’s close.

However, in none of the three instances has Matrimony.com’s share price managed to test the respective buyback prices. The stock’s all-time high of Rs 1,242, hit in February 2021, came well before the buyback announcements.

Stock performance

Adding to Monday’s decline, Matrimony.com shares have shown limited near-term recovery. Over the past one month, the stock is up 4.41 per cent, while it has fallen 5.85 per cent over the past six months. On a year-to-date basis, the stock is down 21.49 per cent, reflecting sustained pressure on valuations amid muted investor sentiment.

Market participants said that while repeated buybacks underscore management’s intent to return capital to shareholders, the stock’s longer-term underperformance indicates lingering concerns over growth visibility and earnings momentum.