NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 17, 2017 /Continued strength from the technology sector helped push the NASDAQ to a new record high. The NASDAQ has outperformed both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index in 2017. The NASDAQ Composite Index hit a high of 6,170.16 in intraday trading Friday, before settling to close at 6,169.87, up 14.62 percent year-to-date. The Dow Jones declined 0.01 percent to close at 20,979.75, up 6.16 percent year-to-date, while the S&P 500 Index declined 0.07 percent to close at 2,400.67, up 7.23 percent year-to-date. Chinese internet stocks spiked Wednesday after social media platform Weibo Corp. reported strong quarterly earnings.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

Weibo Corp.
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=WB

SINA Corp.
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=SINA

Weibo's shares spiked 24.96 percent to close at $78.60 a share on Tuesday. The stock traded between $69.54 and $79.26 on volume of 13.71 million shares traded. The company reported net revenues were $199.2 million for the first quarter of 2017, an increase of 67 percent year-over-year and above guidance range of $185 million to $190 million. Net income was $46.9 million for the quarter, up from net income of $7.15 million reported in the same quarter last year. Monthly active users (MAUs) in March 2017 totaled 340 million, an increase of 30 percent when compared to a year ago. Shares of Weibo have gained approximately 93.6 percent year-to-date.

"Our relentless focus to build the best social media experience in China is reflected in Weibo's strong performance in the first quarter of 2017, with revenues growing 67% year over year, or 76% on a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA margin reaching 35% and MAUs reaching 340 million," said Gaofei Wang, Weibo's CEO.

Access RDI's Weibo Research Report at:
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=WB

SINA's shares jumped 17.85 percent to close at $99.04 a share on Tuesday. The stock traded between $88.78 and $100.98 on volume of 10.65 million shares traded. SINA is the former parent company and the current largest shareholder of Weibo. SINA reported net revenues were $278.1 million for the first quarter of 2017, an increase of 40 percent year-over-year. Net income was $38.5 million for the first quarter of 2017, compared to income of $15.3 million reported in the same quarter a year ago. Shares of SINA have gained approximately 62.92 percent year-to-date.

"We started the year 2017 with a great quarter," said Charles Chao, Chairman and CEO of SINA. "Weibo continued its strong momentum with accelerated growth in revenues and impressive expansion of user base," said Mr. Chao. "On the SINA media business, our performance was in line with our expectation, taking seasonality factor into account. We have further restructured our mobile media business to accelerate the pace for the mobile transition," Mr. Chao added.

Access RDI's SINA Research Report at:
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=SINA

Our Actionable Research on Weibo Corp. (NASDAQ: WB) and SINA Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) can be downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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