What happened
Shares of Sea Limited (SE) have plunged today, down by 8% as of 12:25 p.m. EDT, after the company reported second-quarter earnings. Losses widened, but the Singapore-based digital platform specialist raised its guidance for 2019.
So what
Total adjusted revenue in the second quarter more than tripled to $665.4 million, topping the consensus estimate of $613.5 million in sales. That included adjusted digital revenue of $443.2 million and adjusted e-commerce revenue of $177.4 million. Sea's adjusted net loss widened 8% to $215.1 million, or $0.49 per share. That was better than the $0.51 per share in adjusted losses that analysts were expecting.
Image source: Sea.
Quarterly active users jumped to 310.5 million, while the proportion of quarterly paying users more than doubled to 8.4%. Average revenue per user increased to $1.40, and Sea's internally developed game Free Fire continued to perform well.
Now what
Sea boosted its full-year guidance for both of its operating segments, and now expects adjusted digital revenue of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion for 2019, up from a previous range of $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion. Adjusted e-commerce revenue is now expected to be $780 million to $820 million, up from a prior outlook of $630 million to $660 million.
"As you know, at the start of the year we set ourselves some very ambitious targets for adjusted revenue growth in 2019," CEO Forrest Li said on the earnings call. "With our very strong performance in the first half of the year, we have decided to raise our guidance for our full-year adjusted revenue for both digital entertainment and e-commerce."
Typically investors would cheer a beat-and-raise quarter, but Sea stock has already skyrocketed this year, so the market is already pricing in lofty expectations.
