Sina Corp Q3 earnings surpass estimates by 22 cents, shares up 3%

Chinese technology company Sina Corporation (SINA) reported better-than-expected third quarter earnings driven by strong growth in its Weibo advertising. Q3 net income of $0.93 per share, was 22 cents higher than the projection set by Wall Street analysts.

Net revenue increased 26% to $557.2 million, helped by a 33% jump in advertising revenues. Analysts had expected a top line of $561.5 million.

SINA shares grew 3% during pre-market trading.

CEO Charles Chao said, “We are pleased with SINA’s third-quarter results. Despite intensified competition and macro headwinds, we delivered healthy growth in both revenues and profitability driven by the continued momentum of Weibo business.”

Advertising revenues for the third quarter were $483.8 million, compared to $364 million in the year-ago period, primarily due to a 48% jump in Weibo advertising and marketing revenues.

Non-advertising revenues were $73.4 million, slightly lower than $79.2 million reported during the third quarter of 2017.

Seeing little improvement in the trade war situation, the Beijing-headquartered company lowered its fiscal year 2018 net revenue guidance to a range of $2.09 billion to $2.12 billion, reflecting a 5-7% adjustment to the midpoint of the original revenue guidance.

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In spite of strong business performance, the stock is down over 42% so far this year, battered by fears over the impacts of  US-China trade spat.

Sina has over 100 million registered users and owns an 11% stake the Twitter-style social networking site Sina Weibo (WB), which was spun off as a public company in 2014.

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