Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of SINA (SINA) jumped more than 11% Wednesday after the Chinese Internet media company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
So what: Net revenue rose 21% year over year to $184.6 million, which translated to a 144% gain in non-GAAP net income to $0.42 per share. By contrast, analysts were looking for adjusted earnings of just $0.32 per share on lower sales of $178.61 million.
What's more, SINA provided guidance for non-GAAP fourth quarter sales between $190 million and $194 million, which is also well above analysts' expectations for sales of $182.1 million.
Now what: CEO Charles Chao said, "We are pleased with our results for the third quarter with significant growth in profitability driven primarily by strong momentum in Weibo monetization." In case you're unfamiliar, Weibo is SINA's wildly popular microblogging platform, which Chao later said grew 11.2% from June to September to reach 60.2 million daily active users.
After today's pop, shares of SINA do look relatively expensive, trading north of 42 times next year's estimated earnings. But don't let its high price fool you; if SINA can maintain even a fraction of this momentum and continue to grow earnings as margins expand, I think the stock could still prove a bargain for patient investors down the road.
