Chinese Internet Stocks Soar After Weibo (WB) Earnings Impress

After Chinese social media giant Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings before the bell, shares of the country’s other internet players—including Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) , Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) , and Momo (NASDAQ:MOMO) —are soaring as well.

Weibo, often referred to as the Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) of China, posted earnings of 21 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 16 cents. Quarterly revenues of $199 million beat our consensus estimate of $189 million and grew 67% from the year-ago period.

Weibo said its daily active user count grew 28% to 154 million in the March quarter, while monthly active users gained 30% to 340 million. The company guided for second-quarter revenue in the range of $240 million to $250 million, which is well above our current consensus estimate of $229 million.

Shares of Weibo gained more than 20% following the report, hitting a morning trading high of $75.70.

Weibo is a spinoff of Chinese telecom and internet behemoth Sina Corp. (NASDAQ:SINA) , which also reported better-than-expected results on Tuesday morning. Sina, which still owns a controlling stake in Weibo, saw its stock soar more than 18% in morning trading hours.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba scooped up an 18% stake in Weibo prior to its IPO in 2014. Alibaba shares were up as high as 2.3% in morning trading. The company reports earnings later this week.

Alibaba’s stake in Weibo was seen as an attempt to compete with WeChat, which is operated by Tencent (OTC:TCEHY) . Shares of Tencent were actually down about 1% today, and the company is also slated to report earnings later this week.

Momo, which operates a location-based instant messaging application, saw its shares gain more than 6% after Weibo’s report. Momo is expected to report its latest earnings results next week.

Another Chinese internet stock on the move was Baidu. Shares of this Chinese search engine and web services giant gained more than 2.2% in morning trading. Baidu recently reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue results.

Overall, the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF KWEB was up more than 2.5% as a result of today’s momentum throughout the industry. The Chinese internet space looks strong, and investors are ready to cash in on the growth of this ever-emerging market.

For more on investing in China, check out the Zacks Friday Finish Line team’s exclusive interview with Brendan Ahern, the chief investment officer of KraneShares:

Want more stock market analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeney on Twitter!

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