Morgan Stanley has bought a stake in dating industry giant The Match Group.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, Morgan Stanley bought 126,919 shares of the company’s stock.
This stake was worth $1.72m, and means the investment bank owns 0.05% of The Match Group.
The news was revealed in its most recent disclosure with the SEC, and comes as other investors changed their stake in the dating business.
TD Asset Management Inc. bought $1,316,000 of shares in the dating company, American Century Companies Inc. bought shares worth $3,463,000 and Penn Capital Management Co. Inc. purchased $7,274,000 of shares.
The investment news comes after it was revealed Match Group was getting sued after being accused of violating federal securities law in connection with last year’s IPO.
A number of law firms announced they have filed a class action lawsuit against The Match Group in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, on behalf of people who purchased Match Group shares before its IPO.
The lawsuit says that on November 19th, 2015, The Match Group sold 33,333,333 shares at $12.00 per share as part of its IPO.
But then on February 2nd, 2016, the company revealed to investors a “decline in total user growth and per-user revenue, and the cannibalization of users and revenues across competing platforms.”
The suit also says the company revealed its net income has “consistently fallen” which was revealed in its fourth quarter and full year 2015 results, the company disclosing that its fourth quarter net income declined from $48m in the fourth quarter of 2014 to $35m in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Read more about the suit here.