What happened
Shares of JD.com (JD +0.86%) fell 12.7% in August of 2018, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Chinese e-commerce titan failed to impress investors with its second-quarter earnings report.
So what
JD's adjusted second-quarter earnings of $0.05 per American Depositary Share was only half of the year-ago period's bottom-line take, although net revenues rose 31% year over year to land at $18.5 billion. Analysts had been expecting a flattish earnings performance of $0.10 per ADS.
Image source: JD.com.
Now what
The soft earnings line was a direct result of JD boosting its R&D budget by 80% above the year-ago period's reading. The company is working on advanced supply chain and logistics management tools and is already reselling these services to other Chinese retailers and e-tailers.
In my view, that's a solid investment in this tech-heavy company's long-term future, and no reason at all to drop share prices nearly 13% lower. But that's what we've got, so this might be a good time to consider starting an investment position in JD.com. All told, the stock is trading 36% lower in 2018, and you can pick up shares for the low, low price of 18 times JD's free cash flow.
