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 E Commerce China Dangdang Inc (DANG) were surging for the second straight day today, gaining as much as 14% following Thursday's blowout earnings report.
So what: Investors apparently couldn't get enough of the Chinese online retailer yesterday as the stock soared throughout Thursday's session, and immediately jumped out to double-digit gains today. In its earnings report, Dangdang posted a surprise profit of $0.07 a share on a expectations of a $0.04 loss, while revenues increased 22.1% to $325.7 million, better than expectations of $317.7 million.
Now what: There's clearly a lot of potential in online retail in a fast-growing economy with more than 1 billion consumers, as demonstrated by the explosive growth of stocks like Dangdang and Vipshop Holdings. Even at home, share of flash-sale retailer Zulily jumped more than 50% this week on its own blockbuster earnings. Like Amazon.com, Dangdang has transformed itself from an online bookstore to an all-in-one retailer, a transition that seems to be paying off based on this latest report. For 2014, analysts had been expecting a $0.06-per-share loss, but I'd expect those numbers to get a solid bump given this report and the company's upside first-quarter guidance of 30% revenue growth.
