Chinese growth stocks were on fire last week.
There were plenty of stocks from the world's most populous nation putting up double-digit percentage gains.
Are investors finally ready to buy back into China? Are the high growth rates and low multiples enough to outweigh the geopolitical risks of buying into Chinese growth stocks?
Let's take a closer look at some of the winners from last week.
|
Company |
May 10 |
Weekly Gain |
|---|---|---|
|
Ctrip.com (CTRP 0.04%) |
$29.38 |
30% |
|
China Mobile Games (NASDAQ: CMGE) |
$15.40 |
25% |
|
Dangdang (DANG +0.00%) |
$4.62 |
19% |
|
Sohu.com (SOHU 0.07%) |
$60.70 |
17% |
|
Baidu (BIDU +0.18%) |
$95.45 |
13% |
Source: Barron's.
Ctrip runs the leading travel portal in China, and the stock took off last week after blowout quarterly results.
Ctrip's revenue soared a better-than-expected 27% during the quarter, and its guidance for 15% to 20% in top-line growth for the current quarter was also encouraging. Profitability did slip as margins contracted, but even there Ctrip was a winner. Its quarterly profit of $0.18 a share was 50% ahead of where the pros were perched.
China Mobile Games has quietly become one of this year's hottest stocks, nearly quadrupling so far in 2013. The speedster commands the largest market share in terms of revenue among mobile game developers. There was no material news during the week, but China Mobile Games announced three new games this morning.
Dangdang is one of the country's most prolific online retailers. Dangdang introduced a daily deals channel earlier this month, but investors are buying in these days hoping for a strong quarterly report this week. Dangdang is expected to post a narrowing deficit on a 25% surge in sales when it reports on Thursday.
Sohu.com is one of the more seasoned publicly traded Chinese equities. Sohu is best known for its online portal, but it has grown over the years to spearhead the fast-growing Sogou search engine and a magnetic video-streaming website.
Finally we have Baidu, posting its best weekly gain in nearly a year after announcing the acquisition of PPS.tv. The $370 million deal positions China's leading search engine as a major player in video. Sure, video will never be as lucrative as Baidu's high-margin paid search stronghold, but the key here is that the business is incremental. Baidu will also be able to sell a broader array of only advertising products to its clients.
Betting on China
There's plenty of growth still to be had if you buy the right Chinese growth stocks.
