What: As SINA Corp. (SINA) stock has fallen hard in recent weeks as the broader China market pulls back, it's easy to forget shares of the Chinese online media company only just finished skyrocketing 31.5% during the month of June, according to S&P Capital IQ data. To be sure, despite the recent drop, SINA stock is still up almost 19% over the past year as of this writing, and has handily outperformed the S&P 500 in the process:
So what: I've already asserted the recent drop has little to do with SINA's underlying business, so I think now's a great time to put things into perspective by exploring what drove last month's gains.
In short, almost the entire move can be attributed SINA's 22% pop on June 1, 2015, when it announced an agreement with CEO Charles Chao for a massive $456 million cash investment in the company. More specifically, Chao agreed to purchase 11 million newly issued shares for that amount, equating to an average price of roughly $41.49 per share with a contractual lock-up restriction for six months after closing. In short, this amounted to a huge vote of confidence in the company, spurring a number of analyst upgrades.
In a note a few days ago from HSBC, for example, analysts Chi Tsang and Alice Cai reiterated their "buy" rating and increased their price target from $47 to $67, pointing out that SINA "management is moving aggressively to enhance the value of its verticals."
Now what: Of course, SINA has plenty of work to do if it wants to accomplish that feat, but any progress along the way should help appease investors' worries of whether SINA's stake in Weibo can continue singlehandedly driving growth. For now, that risk is why I'm content watching SINA from the sidelines. But I may reconsider my stance going forward as the fruit of SINA's efforts becomes more apparent.
