What happened
Shares of Up Fintech Holdings (TIGR -2.39%) gained roughly 8.6% in Friday's trading. The stock surged after the company posted promising second-quarter results.
Up Fintech published its Q2 report before the market opened today, and the overall results were encouraging despite sales and earnings for the period coming in below the market's expectations. The China-based online brokerage company posted a non-GAAP (adjusted) loss per American depositary share of $0.03 on revenue of $60.23 million, while the average analyst estimate had called for adjusted earnings of $0.15 per share on sales of $74.78 million.
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So what
Despite missing the average analyst estimate's sales target, Up Fintech's sales still grew 98.7% year over year in the second quarter. The company benefited from a significant increase in the number of new funded accounts, and a big jump for the total account balance on its Tiger Brokers trading platform bodes well for business performance in the near term. The total account balance on the Tiger platform hit $23.9 billion at the end of the period -- up roughly 189% compared to the prior-year period.
Now what
Tiger Brokers appears to be enjoying a surge of new user activity. The total number of customers with deposits on the platform rose roughly 215% year over year to reach 529,100 last quarter; the business could continue to enjoy strong performance if it keeps bringing new members into its ecosystem. All told, the company expects that it will be able to add 350,000 new funded accounts this year.
Up Fintech has a market capitalization of roughly $2.4 billion; it is valued at approximately 36 times this year's expected earnings and eight times expected sales.
