What happened
Shares of Chinese e-commerce titan JD.com (JD 0.12%) had a tough trading day on Friday following the release of mixed fourth-quarter results. The stock fell as much as 9.5% in the first half-hour of the market day, recovering to a 6.5% drop as of 2:30 p.m. EST.
Image source: JD.com.
So what
In the fourth quarter, JD's sales rose 46% year over year, to land at $16.9 billion. Adjusted earnings soared 67% higher, stopping at $0.10 per share. Analysts had been looking for earnings near $0.07 per share on roughly $17.1 billion in top-line revenues. That's technically a mixed quarter, as sales fell 1% below Wall Street's targets, while earnings outperformed the analyst consensus by 42%.
Now what
Even after Friday's sharp drop, JD shares still have delivered a market-beating 40% return over the last 52 weeks. The stock is trading at 96 times trailing earnings today, way up in Wall Street's nosebleed section. It's no surprise to see nervous investors taking some of their stakes off the table on the slightest sign of weakness, such as a 1% revenue miss. This still is a healthy business with plenty of rocket fuel left in its engines.
