Sina Corporation Rises 3% After Q3 Results

Sina Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) was up more than three percent in after hours trading after announcing the firm's third quarter results.

The internet media company's Q3 EPS came in at $0.42 versus the Street estimate of $0.20. Earnings per share were up 118 percent from the year-ago quarter. Revenue came in at $184.6 million versus the Street estimate of $178.61 million. Sales were up 25 percent year-over-year.

"We are pleased with our results for the third quarter with significant growth in profitability driven primarily by strong momentum in Weibo [the company's social media platform] monetization," Charles Chao (Cao Guowei), Chairman and CEO of Sina (pictured), said in a company release.

"We are at the dawn of leveraging user behaviors to provide more interesting and relevant advertising and services." he added. "Our efforts to diversify Weibo's monetization while continuing to invest and innovate Sina's offerings are seeing not only revenue acceleration but also continuing profit margin expansion."

Sina expects its fourth quarter sales to fall within the $190 million to $194 million range versus the Street estimate of $182.1 million.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.

Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ