JD.com Q4 Revenue And Q1 Outlook Beat Views; Stock Rises
China e-commerce company JD.com ( JD ) reported fourth-quarter earnings early Tuesday that showed strong revenue growth and a lower-than-expected loss, defying concerns of economic weakness in that country. JD, the largest online direct-sales company in China, also provided Q1 revenue guidance that beat Wall Street views, with the company seeing sales of 53 billion to 55 billion yuan ($8 billion to $8.4 billion), up 45% to 50% from Q1 2015. The analyst consensus was for 53.1 billion yuan. JD reported Q4 revenue of $8.35 billion, up 57% in local currency year over year, beating the consensus estimate of $7.95 billion. For the year, revenue rose 58% to $28 billion. The company reported a 7-cent per-share loss minus items, where analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast a 12-cent loss. JD had posted a 6-cent profit in the year-earlier quarter. “JD posted pretty strong results, especially user growth and in its gross merchandise volume,” said Henry Guo, an analyst at Summit Research. “The company is well positioned in the market, showing that consumers are increasingly coming to JD for shopping.” JD offers a wide range of electronics, apparel, home appliances, food and beverages and other general merchandise. Its expansion efforts include online-to-offline retailing and flash sales — to help it compete in China’s burgeoning e-commerce arena against Alibaba ( BABA ), Vipshop Holdings ( VIPS ) and others. The e-commerce company said gross merchandise volume (GMV), which is the total value of goods sold, rose 69% to $22.2 billion for the quarter. For the year, GMV rose 78% to $71.4 billion. Active annual customer accounts rose 71% to 155 million. JD said is has about 99,000 merchants on its online marketplace. JD stock was up 3.5% in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 26.50, and it hit its highest point since late-January. JPMorgan initiated coverage on JD last week with an overweight rating and price target of 33. Investors Worry About China Economy Slowing growth in China has hurt stocks, particularly Chinese Internet stocks. Nomura Securities, in a research note last month, said most investors are preoccupied by the economic risks in China, leading to the underweighting of China internet stocks. “Many investors we spoke with agreed that the Internet sector was oversold, but they would rather wait until the macro picture becomes clearer,” the report said. In the company’s earnings conference call with analysts, company CEO Richard Liu said JD’s momentum continued throughout 2015. “We have made excellent progress on our key strategic partners,” he said. “China’s middle-class consumers increasingly demand quality brands and authentic products, and we have been very effective at winning over more customers.” China’s slowing economy has not deterred Chinese consumers from online shopping, S idney Huang, JD’s chief financial officer, said on the call. “We’re encouraged by these trends. W ith our differentiated value proposition and a better customer experience, we remain cautiously optimistic about our 2016 growth outlook,” he said. JD’s earnings followed Vipshop’s, released Thursday. Vipshop reported Q4 earnings that beat estimates, but its shares dropped as first-quarter guidance fell short. Vipshop is an online discount retailer that sells branded apparel, accessories, home goods and other lifestyle products. It specializes in so-called flash sales, in which a set number of goods are sold over a limited time. On Jan. 28, Alibaba reported its fiscal Q3 for the quarter ended Dec. 31 that topped Wall Street expectations. Fulfilled orders from JD’s core business units through mobile devices accounted for about 61% of total orders in Q4, up 230% from Q4 2014. JD said it’s O2O business unit, called JD Daojia, in Q4 formed a strategic cooperation with Yonghui, a leading supermarket chain in China. JD Daojia has partnered with 56 Yonghui stores in five cities to provide two-hour delivery service for customers’ grocery orders. JD said JD Daojia provides O2O services in 12 major cities across China. A year ago, JD.com formed a strategic partnership with Tencent Holdings ( TCEHY ), a leading Internet company in China, aimed at providing superior e-commerce services to mobile and Internet users in China. Tencent, China’s leader in messaging and gaming, is set to report earnings before the market opens March 17. It’s traded over the counter in the U.S., with its primary stock listing in Hong Kong, where it is a component of the blue-chip Hang Seng index.