It must have been frustrating to see recent Rule Breakers newsletter recommendation Shanda Interactive (NASDAQ:SNDA) report great results last week, only to see its hefty gains in after-hours trading disintegrate on Friday. So how bad do you think things will be for fellow Chinese bellwether Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) now that it has some grim news to report?
While Sina's December quarter was solid, with earnings nearly doubling to $0.30 a share as net revenues climbed by 49% to hit $56.9 million, it warned investors that the current quarter will suffer a sequential dip. Sina is now expecting March-quarter revenues to come in no better than $47 million, while earnings will fall from $17.4 million during its December quarter to between $11 million and $13 million in 2005's first quarter.
With Sohu (NASDAQ:SOHU) also chiming in with a bleak outlook yesterday, it was logical to expect Sina to stumble as well, since both are still relying heavily on their mobile messaging service, which has come under fire in China in recent months. From a crackdown on racy content to a ban on advertising fortune-telling text services, Sina and Sohu have been stung, and stung hard.
Yet why have Shanda and NetEase.com (NASDAQ:NTES) been pelted with sympathy? NetEase has continued to diversify away from the troubled mobile messaging services niche and into the lucrative online gaming market. Shanda is all about online gaming. With NetEase set to report later this month -- and Shanda already putting up solid numbers -- this smells like a buying opportunity.
Other quality players may also be ripe for the picking. Peers like Tom Online (NASDAQ:TOMO) and The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY) were also trading lower, despite their strong Web-portal and online-gaming properties. Tom does dabble in the turbulent mobile world, yet The9, like Shanda, is a pure online gaming play, and it too will have a chance to set itself apart from the weakness of Sohu and Sina when it reports its quarterly results in two weeks.
Both Shanda and NetEase were singled out as worthy stock picks a couple of months ago in our Rule Breakers newsletter service. While they have been near-term disappointments, they remain compelling growing leaders in the world's most populous nation. While Sina, Sohu, and a few other four-letter words may come to mind, it's too soon to give up on a dream this big. The long term will reward the nimble growers, and Shanda and NetEase continue to deliver quality high-margin results.
Sina is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation.
Other related Foolishness:
- Hey, Shanda's report wasn't so bad.
- We were excited about the region's potential a couple of years ago.
- Why not discuss the country's investing potential in our China Connection discussion board?
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz believes in the sector but he does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
