E-House Holdings (EJ) Beats Estimates Soundly, Raises Guidance

E-House Holdings (EJ), despite stellar earnings, seemed to go into a tailspin a few months ago due to fears of a percolating real estate bubble in parts of China.  While the pace of news stories on that front has only increased of late (NYT - Skyrocketing Prices May Point to Real Estate Bubble in China) the stock has rebounded with the return of speculators into the US listed Chinese small and mid cap stocks the past few weeks.  It certainly seems based on these corporate results the stock was unfairly hit the past few months - once more showing the market is less about reality and more about perception of reality.  Companies in far worse fundamental shape have been skyrocketing for months without a care in the world...

Earnings reports for both E-House, and its subsidiary China Real Estate Information (CRIC) were released yesterday and quite good.  Full report for E-House here.

Via Reuters:

• Chinese real estate services company E-House China Holding Ltd's (EJ) fourth-quarter profit soared past market estimates, ramped up by a substantial increase in the gross floor area sold, and the company forecast first-quarter revenue above consensus view.
• For the latest quarter ended Dec. 31, net income attributable to shareholders was $39 million, or 49 cents per American depository share (ADS), compared with $8.3 million, or 10 cents per ADS a year earlier.  According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, the company earned 37 cents per ADS, before items, that compares with analysts' estimates of 30 cents per ADS.
• Revenue jumped three-fold to $117.1 million, topping analysts' expectations of $105 million, as GFA (gross floor area) of new properties sold touched 3.7 million square meters, up from 1.6 million square meters.
• Total value of new properties sold were $4 billion, up from $1.6 billion a year ago.

Guidance:

• For the first quarter, E-House expects to generate revenue of $69 million to $71 million. Excluding the business from its online real estate segment, it expects revenue to be between $62 million and $63 million, an increase of 89% to 92% over the same quarter in 2009.

E-House (China) Holdings Limited ("E-House") (NYSE: EJ - News) is a leading real estate services company in China. Since its inception in 2000, E-House has experienced rapid growth and is China's largest real estate agency and consulting services company with a presence in more than 30 cities. In addition to its national presence, E-House offers a wide range of services to the real estate industry through its various business segments including primary sales agency, secondary brokerage, consulting and information services, advertising and investment management.

Information on CRIC's earnings report can be found here.

China Real Estate is a subsidiary of real estate services company E-House Holdings Ltd. China Real Estate merged with the online real estate business of Chinese online portal Sina Corp. when China Real Estate completed its IPO.

[Nov 17, 2009: Rebuilding E-House Holdings Position on Blowout Earnings]
[Sep 30, 2009: China Real Estate Information Seeks US IPO Worth $200M]
[Sep 29, 2009: E-House Holdings in Investors Business Daily]
[Aug 12, 2009: E-House Holdings (EJ) Benefitting from China Housing Bubble 2.0]

No position