What happened
Bilibili (BILI -2.09%) shares eked out a win on the stock market Thursday, rising to close 1.3% higher while the S&P 500 index booked a less than 1% rise. The reason why was simple -- the China-based tech company posted quarterly earnings that exceeded analysts' bottom-line expectations.
So what
For its first quarter, Bilibili earned 5.1 billion yuan ($718 million) in revenue, which was marginally higher than its take in the same period of 2022. Improvement was also seen on the bottom line, as the tech company managed to narrow its net loss to slightly over 1 billion yuan ($141 million), equating to 2.51 yuan ($0.35) per share, against the year-ago shortfall of 1.65 billion yuan ($232 million).
On average, prognosticators following the stock were expecting a slightly higher top-line figure of 5.15 billion yuan ($725 million). Yet they underestimated Bilibili's ability to trim its net loss, since they collectively expected a deficit of 2.84 yuan ($0.40) per share for that metric.
Often referred to as the "YouTube of China" in reference to its foundational business, Bilibili benefited from increases in key operational and financial yardsticks. It didn't hesitate to mention that it enjoyed an 18% year-over-year increase in the number of daily average users (DAUs), an important indicator of online popularity. It also managed to pump its advertising revenue 22% higher.
Now what
Bilibili also reiterated its revenue guidance for the entirety of 2023. The company continues to believe it will post a figure of 24 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) to 26 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) for the period. It did not provide any estimates for profitability.
