Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of E-House (NYSE: EJ), a real estate agency and information services company in China, jumped as much as 19% after reporting its second-quarter earnings results. Shares have since rescinded most of their gains and are now up just 2%.
So what: For the quarter, E-House delivered a 43% increase in revenue to $163.4 million with real estate online revenue providing the biggest pop, up 79%! Non-GAAP net income rose by a more impressive 127%, although with more shares outstanding, EPS rose by a little less than double to $0.11 from $0.06 in the year-ago period. Comparatively speaking, E-House crushed the Street's expectations, which had called for revenue of $135.8 million and EPS of $0.06. Furthermore, E-House yet again upped its full-year revenue forecast from a previous projection of $600 million to its new guidance of $630 million, representing 36% year-over-year growth. The current consensus on the Street had been for $594.8 million in revenue.
Now what: This was certainly a strong quarter, everything considered. I was concerned that a slowdown in China's GDP growth might trickle down to first-time homebuyers and investors in China, potentially harming the housing market -- but apparently that's not happening. E-House ended the quarter with no debt and $188 million in cash, which is also something I definitely love to see. Although its forward P/E of 13 isn't particularly expensive, the 40% run-up in shares this week before its earnings report gives me enough reason to wait for a pullback before suggesting you dig deeper into E-House.
