Posts for Ticker ‘SINA’

52-Week High Club (AGO, SMTL, SINA, TWB)

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE: AGO) over 32% to a yearly high of $28.14 after the company posted earnings of $0.44 per share, beating analysts estimates.  

Semitool Inc (NASDAQ: SMTL) rose over 30% to a yearly high of $11.00 after Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ: AMAT) agreed to buy the company for $11.00 per share, or $364 million.  

Sina Corp (NASDAQ: SINA) rose over 10% today to a yearly high of $47.95 after the Chinese internet portal beat earnings and projected margin improvements.  

Tween Brands Inc (NYSE: TWB) rose over 11% today to a yearly high o $10.16 after the company posted a profite of $0.58 per share, beating analyst estimates.  

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: November 17, 2009 – 3:56 pm in Financial Stocks, Media, Mergers and Buy Outs, Retail, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , , ,

IPO ALERT: China Real Estate Information Involves Other Companies (CRIC, EJ, SINA)

china mapChina Real Estate Information Corporation (NASDAQ: CRIC) has priced its 18 million share initial public offering at $12.00 per share.  While this is not an easy structure, this IPO has ramifications for two other big Chinese public companies.  CRIC is a subsidiary of E-House (China) Holdings Limited (NYSE: EJ) and it will merge with the online real estate business of SINA Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) effective as of the closing of CRIC’s IPO.
Read More »

Posted on: October 16, 2009 – 9:21 am in ADR, Business Services, China, Mergers and Buy Outs, REIT, , ,

Top Analyst Downgrades (CRDN, FSLR, NUE, RS, SINA, TLB)

These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen early this Wednesday morning:

Ceradyne (CRDN) cut to Underperform at Wachovia; Cut to Accumulate at ThinkEquity.
First Solar (FSLR) Cut to Hold at Soleil.
Nucor (NUE) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
Reliance Steel (RS) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
Sina (SINA) Cut to Neutral at Pali.
Talbots (TLB) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: June 10, 2009 – 6:56 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , ,

Media Digest 6/10/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters: The Supreme Court delays  Chrysler deal.

Reuters:   The cleared ten banks to repay TARP include JPMorgan (JPM), Goldmand Sachs (GS), American Express (AXP), Cpaital One(COF), State Street (STT), BBT (BBT), Morgan Stanley (MS), and US Bancorp (USB).

Reuters:   Senate Democrats revealed healthcare bill.

Reuters:   New York Times (NYT) will not close the Boston Globe Read More »

Posted on: June 10, 2009 – 3:02 am in Autos, Banking, Biotech, Brokerage Firms, Compensation, Consumer Electronics, Corporate Governance, Economy, Financial Stocks, Management Change, Oil & Gas, Press Digest, Private Equity, Turnarounds, Wireless, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ADBE, RATE, BWA, MRO, RHT, SEPR, SYMC, SINA)

Monday is starting the week off with a pretty light wave of analyst calls.  The top 10 analyst upgrades and downgrades are not even a full 10 calls with more than two hours until the market opens:

Adobe Systems (ADBE) Cut to Hold at Citigroup; Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Bankrate (RATE) Cut to Market Perform at JMP Securities.
BorgWarner Inc. (BWA) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Marathon Oil (MRO) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Red Hat (RHT) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Sepracor (SEPR) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Symantec (SYMC) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Sina Corp. (SINA) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: May 4, 2009 – 6:35 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 3/18/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaper15According to Reuters, AIG (AIG) will have to pay taxpayers back for bonuses it paid out before it can get its next $30 billion in loans.

Reuters reports that Coke (KO) is being blocked by the Chinese government from buying a juice company there.

Reuters writes that the head of GM (GM) says the Ford (F) deal with UAW will not work for the No.2 US car company.

Reuters reports that the World Bank wants the G20 to take a harder stance against protectionism

Reuters writes that the US economy is showing signs of coming out of its hole.

Reuters reports that investors in Starbucks (SBUX) want to see more savings.

Reuters reports that Apple (AAPL) released more applications for the iPhone. Read More »

Posted on: March 18, 2009 – 3:03 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 52-WeeK Low Club (ZEP)(LZB)(TNC)(SINA)

Old_carZep (ZEP) Shares downgraded. Drops to $13.17 from 52-week high of $21.80.

La-Z-Boy (LZB) Shares in industry downgraded. $1.82 from 52-week high of $11.76.

Tennant (TNC) Still falling due to accounting concerns. Guidance cut. Shares downgraded. Falls to $13.70 from 52-week high of $43.94.

Sina (SINA) No news. China portal stock plunges to $20.20 from 52-week of $58.50.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: January 12, 2009 – 4:09 pm in HI/LOW, , , ,

SINA & Focus Media Ad Combination Swap (SINA, FMCN)

SINA Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) has agreed to buy Focus Media Holding Limited’s (NASDAQ: FMCN) digital out-of-home advertising networks.  This will include a LCD display network, a poster frame network and its in-store network.  Focus Media will retain its Internet advertising division, the movie theater advertising network portion of its commercial location network, and certain traditional billboards.   

Read More »

Posted on: December 22, 2008 – 9:11 am in China, Entertainment, Media, ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (AXP, AXYS, BJ, CAVM, ERTS, ERIC, FLIR, FTI, GE, HTLD, KNX, NKE, SINA)

These are the top downgrades or negative calls we have seen this Wednesday morning from Wall Street analysts:

  • American Express (AXP) Started as Sell at Banc of America; Started as Sell at Citigroup.
  • Axsys Technologies (AXYS) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • BJ’s Wholesale (BJ) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Cavium Networks (CAVM) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
  • Electronic Arts (ERTS) was downgraded at Citigroup, Banc of America, and piper Jaffray.
  • Ericsson (ERIC) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • FLIR Systems (FLIR) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • FMC Tech (FTI) Cut to Sell at UBS.
  • General Electric (GE) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Heartlan Express (HTLD) Cut to Sell at UBS.
  • Knight Transportation (KNX) Cut to Sell at UBS.
  • Nike (NKE) Cut to Neutral at Banc of America.
  • Sina (SINA) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
December 10, 2008

Posted on: December 10, 2008 – 8:10 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (ALD, ADM, DLTR, MON, SINA, WFC)

These are some of the top upgrades we have seen this Monday morning with about 2 hours until the open:

  • Allied Capital (ALD) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Started as JPMorgan.
  • Dollar Tree Stores (DLTR) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • Monsanto (MON) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
  • Sina Corp. (SINA) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • Wells Fargo (WFC) Raised to Market Perform at KBW.

Jon C. Ogg
October 6, 2008

Posted on: October 6, 2008 – 6:33 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , ,

Chinese Online Population Now Equals US (MSFT)(BIDU)(SINA)(GOOG)(YHOO)

Based on estimates from the Chinese government, the most populated country in the world now has 221 million people online. That puts it even with the US. Of course, the market is growing faster in China, so it should pull wall ahead of America by the end of the year.

The news is important for US internet companies. Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO) and MSN (MSFT) cannot count on their domestic market to produce a bigger pie each year. They are going to have to fight over what is on the American table. The promise of China is that it has 1.3 billion people. Many will never make it online, but a lot of them will.

Standing in the way of the American search companies and portals are the locals which include companies like Baidu (BIDU) and Sina (SINA). Baidu has 60% of the search engine share in China. The incumbents are not going to give ground easily. That is very tough news for firms like Yahoo! which are going to have to look outside the US for their future growth.

The good news is that the Chinese internet population is getting much bigger. The bad news is that the online audience may not want US products.

NIH. Not invented here.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: April 24, 2008 – 5:29 am in China, , , , ,

Netease & Sina Set To Lead Chinese Web & Tech Stocks (NTES, SINA, BIDU)

Today we’ll get to see earnings out both Sina Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) and Netease.com Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES).

Sina Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) estimates for the Chinese online media company from First Call are $0.33 EPS on $69.14 million in revenues.  Next quarter estimates are $0.26 EPS on $65.87 million in revenues. Estimates for fiscal 2008 are $1.49 EPS on $333.86 million in revenues.

Analysts have an average price target north of $55.00 on Sina.  Options trading looks a bit difficult to use for a prediction too, but the pricing-in range looks to be a move of $1.90 to $2.75 in either direction.  Sina’s stock currently sits right under its 50 and 200-day moving averages, which are $43.07 and $44.12 respectively. 

Sina’s shares were down less than 1% in early afternoon trading at $42.95, and Sina Corp.’s 52-week trading range is $31.19 to $59.27

Netease.com Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES) estimates for the Chinese interactive online and wireless company from First Call are $0.30 EPS on $75.9 million in revenues.  Next quarter estimates are $0.30 EPS on $76.44 million in revenues. Estimates for fiscal 2008 are $1.24 EPS on $328.46 million in revenues.

Analysts have an average price target north of $22 on Netease.  Options are a bit of a guessing game, but it looks like traders are braced for a move of up to $0.50 to $0.68 in either direction.  The chart here may play some influence as well, as its shares have just recently gotten above the $18.15 200-day moving average and the 50-day moving average is $18.75.            

Netease shares were down almost 2% in early afternoon trading at $18.34, and its 52-week trading range is $13.45 to $24.00.

Keep in mind that Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) has already reported earnings last week, and its shares are down roughly 4% since that report.  That being said, these two could still influence Chinese web and Chinese tech stocks that trade in the U.S. tomorrow.

Jon C. Ogg
February 20, 2008

Posted on: February 20, 2008 – 2:35 pm in ADR, China, Earnings, Internet, , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (DRIV, ISIL, MUR, NAPS, BTU, RNWK, SINA, URI, VVUS, YRCW)

These are not the only impacting analyst calls this morning, but these are most of the initial calls being focused on by 247WallSt.com:

  • Digital River (DRIV) raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • Intersil (ISIL) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  • Murphy Oil (MUR) downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • Napster (NAPS) started as an "Underperform" at Bear Stearns.
  • Peabody Energy (BTU) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.
  • Real Networks (RNWK) started as Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • Sina (SINA) raised to Buy from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • United Rentals (URI)  raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  • Vivus (VVUS) started as Overweight at J.P.Morgan.
  • YRC Worldwide (YRCW) downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
January 3, 2008

Posted on: January 3, 2008 – 7:45 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Sina Earnings Gift: Not Lead Paint, But It’s Socks (SINA)

Shares of Sina Corp. (NASDAQ:SINA) posted EPS at $0.28 on net income of $17.2 million, and earnings before items were $0.32 EPS on a non-GAAP basis.  Its revenues were $64.3 million.  First Call had estimates at $0.28 EPS on $64.5 million revenues. 

Revenue segments were in-line with estimates: Advertising revenue rose 40% to $45.8 million; non-advertising revenue fell 21% to $18.5 million; mobile service revenue fell 24% to $16.6 million (after Chinese government mandates went in place). Gross margins from year ago levels fell from 64% to 62%.

Sina put next quarter revenue guidance at $68 to $70 million. First Call has estimates at $69.56 million.  It also guided advertising revenues to be between $49.0 million and $50.0 million and non-advertising revenues to be between $19.0 million and $20.0 million. 

Chinese web, media, and mobile entertainment stocks are far from cheap.  The truth is that there is nothing majorly wrong with the report, but there was no significant solid report and definitely nothing overly exciting about this report.  Grandma didn’t give me the G.I Joe with the Kung Fu grip for Christmas.  She gave me cheap socks. 

Sina shares closed down 3.85% on their own in normal trading ahead of earnings today, and shares are down 5% to $47.00-ish in after-hours trading.  The 52-week trading range is $27.53 to $59.27.

Jon C. Ogg
November 14, 2007

Posted on: November 14, 2007 – 6:02 pm in China, Earnings, Internet,

Baidu’s (BIDU) Shares Set To Fall As Google Takes China Share

Baidu’s (BIDU) stock is up over 225% in the last six months. The Chinese search engine company has a market cap of almost $11 billion, even though its revenue in the last quarter was just above $50 million. The stock now trades at 67 times revenue.

All of that may be about to end. According to new data. Google (GOOG) made a big gain in search engine share in China during the second quarter.

Reuters writes that China is the world’s second largest internet market with 162 million users. The US is in first place, but probably not for long. In Q2, Baidu’s market share did not change much at about 58%. Google’s moved up 4 points to almost 23%.

And, Google claims that the numbers are getting even better for the US company. It has gained more market share in China after it announced its partnership with Sina (SINA), a major Chinese Internet portal.

Google is hinting that the market share distance between the two companies is shrinking fairly fast. "We are closing up the gap with them (Baidu)," one of the US company’s China executives told Reuters.

If that is true, Baidu cannot keep its current valuation.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 4, 2007 – 5:55 am in China, , ,

Baidu.com Up Eight Straight Days, Can It Continue? (BIDU, SINA, SOHU, NTES)

Baidu.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is one of these stocks that is pretty amazing when you look at its trading activity and its volume.  BIDU stock closed up Wednesday another 2.6% at $275.95 on 11.8 million shares, which is another yearly high and more than double average daily volume.  This wouldn’t be a big day on a percentage stock move basis alone unless you look at how it has been trading of late. 

This stock has managed to close up for Eight consecutive days from its last down day on September 2, 2007 when shares closed at $213.64.  Here are the descending closing prices from before Wednesday: $268.79; $252.89; $234.88; $232.47; $230.12; $227.04; $218.10; $213.64. But compare that to dates below and this one looks amazing.  If you compare this to lows in the past months it becomes "exuberant":

  • Lowest close August: $168.89 on August 16, 2007
  • Lowest close July:       $175.04 on July 24, 2007
  • Lowest close June:      $135.64 on June 12, 2007
  • Lowest close May:        $121.35 on May 1, 2007
  • Lowest close April:       $93.523 on April 2, 2007
  • Lowest close 52-Week: $87.28 October 2006

Obviously this one has everything going for it.  It is a hot stock for sure, but it is a hot web search engine stock in the even hotter Chinese market.  The overly obvious is that one incredible quarter is being priced in.  Should we dare we mention the hype from the coming 2008 Olympics?  But what else could be coming besides that?  Obviously a stock splitcomes to mind, but what else?

Read More »

Posted on: September 19, 2007 – 8:16 pm in ADR, China, Internet, , , , , , , , , ,

Is Baidu’s Biggest Competitor In China? (BIDU)

According to MarketWatch, Chinese news portal, Sina (SINA), plans to launch an advertising program with bloggers who post content on its site. "Sina’s move to monetize its massive blog page view inventory (more than 200 million page views a day), which has been building its "Ad Alliance," sites that run Baidu advertisements."

Baidu’s (BIDU) currently trade at $235 up from a 52-week low of $82. It has widely been assumed that the Chinese search engine’s biggest competitor is Google (GOOG), which currently holds the No.2 spot in search market share in the world’s most populated country.

But, if Chinese company’s like Sina can take advertising from Baidu, its shares might come under pressure. Sina has ample reason to want to take a piece of Baidu’s hide. SINA trades at 10x revenue, while BIDU is at 50x. From that height, it’s a long way down.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 16, 2007 – 6:36 pm in Internet, , ,

Google To Buy Into China

Google (GOOG) plans to make several acquisitions in China over the next several quarters, according to TechCruch.

GOOG market share there trails China search engine Baidu (BIDU) by a large margin. By some measures, BIDU has as much as 60% of the market.

GOOG cannot afford to be so far behind in the world’s second largest internet market. Buying in may be the only way to solve that.

The most likely candidates would seem to be portal Sina (SINA) and Sohu (SOHU). Sohu’s market cap is just over $1 billion and SINA;s is about $2 billion.

GOOG has little to lose buy putting $5 billion into owning large internet properties in China. It would almost assure the huge search company of a large presence there.

The only question is whether the communist Chinese government would kick about it.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: August 17, 2007 – 6:37 am in Uncategorized, , , ,

SINA Doesn’t Make The Grade (SINA, SOHU, BIDU)

SINA Corporation (Nasdaq:SINA): Non-GAAP net income was $16.1 million or $0.27 diluted non-GAAP and $0.25 GAAP EPS; net revenues increased 11% year over year to $59.8 million, within the upper range of the Company’s guidance of between $58.0 million and $60.0 million.  Estimates were $0.24 non-GAAP EPS & $59.6 million in revenues.  Non-advertising revenues for the second quarter of 2007 totaled $18.6 million, a 23% decrease from the same period in 2006 and a 5% decrease from the previous quarter.  Gross margin for the second quarter of 2007 was 62%, compared to 63% in the same period last year and 59% in the last quarter.

SINA’s guestimates are total revenues for the third quarter of 2007 to be between $63.0 million and $65.0 million, with advertising revenues to be between $45.0 million and $46.0 million and non-advertising revenues to be between $18.0 million and $19.0 million. Stock-based compensation for the third quarter of 2007 is expected to be approximately $1.7 million, which excludes any new shares that may be granted.  Unfortunately consensus estimates are $64.75 million and that isn’t going to cut it for a high-beta and high-growth Chinese web company.

The soft revenues and soft guidance has shares down over 5% in after-hours trading to $39.50.  SINA’s 52-week trading range is $21.70 to $47.05.  This has shares of Sohu.com (NASDAQ:SOHU) down almost 1% and Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) down 0.3% in after-hours trading.

Jon C. Ogg
August 6, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: August 6, 2007 – 4:19 pm in Earnings, Internet, , , , ,

Baidu.com (BIDU) Gets Too High

Baidu.com (BIDU) hit a 52-week high of almost $194 today. That puts the shares up over 110%. And, the company has a market cap of $6.4 billion. That is 49 times trailing sales. Google (GOOG) trades at less than 14x.

Baidu has the lion’s share of the search market in China, but it does have some real problems. First, it estimates that its revenue for the current quarter will be $50 million. That is an indication that the search business is not nearly as robust in China as it is elsewhere although the company has a huge number of people online. And, there is no guarantee that this dynamic of low yield on the Chinese search market will change.

Another potential head wind for Baidu is that Google will go to great ends to knock the company off its perch as No.1 in China. The big US search operation has just set up a partnership with Sina (SINA), the largest web portal in China. Google seemed impressed with the deal as well it should be. The company told the AP: "Sina is the most influential portal in China and a household brand in China’s Internet industry," said Kai-Fu Lee, vice president of Google and president of Google Greater China.

Baidu’s share of Chinese searches at 55% is about double Google’s. But, it is not a safe bet that it will stay that way.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com

Posted on: July 3, 2007 – 9:41 am in Uncategorized, , ,