SINA Soars on Ads: Fool by Numbers

On May 14, Chinese online and media company SINA (Nasdaq: SINA  ) released first-quarter earnings for the period ended March 31.

• Read more about SINA's new emphasis on Internet advertising in our earnings take.
• Revenues increased 9.8% to $51.3 million, beating the company's previous guidance of $48 million to $50 million.
• The increase in sales was primarily driven by a 43% increase in advertising revenue, the company's largest segment.
• SINA has a three-star rating in CAPS, our free interactive stock database. Chinese online companies Sohu.com (Nasdaq: SOHU  ) and Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU  ) have three and two stars, respectively.

(Figures in thousands, except per-share data.)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Sales	$51,280	$46,712	9.8%
Net Profit	$8,608	$7,036	22.3%
EPS	$0.15	$0.12	25.0%
Diluted Shares	59,264	58,617	1.1%

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change*
	59.3%	61.4%	(2.0)
	14.6%	14.2%	0.4
	16.8%	15.1%	1.7

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$382,667	$304,411	25.7%
Accounts Rec.	$41,544	$34,865	19.2%
Inventory	N/A	N/A	N/A

Liabilities	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$2,516	$1,920	31.0%
Long-Term Debt	N/A	N/A	N/A

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights

SINA must be off surfing the Web, because it forgot to include a cash flow statement in the press release.

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend.

Related Foolishness:

• SINA Ads and Subtracts
• Ad Lives at SINA
• The World Is Your Oyster

SINA is a Stock Advisor recommendation, while Baidu.com is a Rule Breakers pick. To see what other Chinese companies have bright prospects, try a free 30-day trial to either newsletter.   

Fool by Numbers is designed to give you the raw earnings information in a timely fashion, putting all the numbers you need in one easy-to-read place. But at The Motley Fool, we believe numbers tell only part of the story, so check Fool.com for more of our in-depth discussion of what the numbers mean. This data has been provided by Netscribes. To provide feedback on this article, please click on the "feedback" button below.