"Although I am not a big fan of either technology stocks or Chinese stocks, bear markets do create opportunities -- such as Sohu.com. (NASDAQ: SOHU), says Jack Adamo.

In his Jack Adamo's Insiders Plus newsletter, the advisor reviews Sohu.com, the second-largest internet search engine company in China.

"In recent quarters, it has made 42% of its revenues from search and display advertising; the rest comes from online gaming and wireless services. Earnings in the September quarter grew by more than fourfold year-over-year.

"With the Olympics over and the economy slowing to an expected GDP rate of 7%, earnings growth at Sohu is expected to slow as well. The last few quarters bear that out. But even in the slowing environment, earnings were up 14% compared to the June quarter.

"For a Chinese stock, this may be considered to be a relatively slow grower, but the price is right. Selling at less than 10-times earnings, you'd be hard pressed to find a better buy among well-established Chinese companies.

Continue reading China 'search' leads to Sohu.com (SOHU)

China 'search' leads to Sohu.com (SOHU) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

OK, so is China really communist? Not from what I can see.

Just look at the IPO market. Yes, it's been sizzling.

And, of course, the latest mega deal is the public offering of Alibaba.com, which operates a sprawling group of fast-growing Internet properties.

According to a report from Bloomberg.com, the IPO surged from HK$13.50 to HK$39.50. In fact, Alibaba.com sports a market cap of a cool $25.7 billion. That is a thrill for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), which has a 39% stake in the company.

Actually, Alibaba.com even has earnings. Although, at the current valuation, they are more than 150 times the market cap. That makes Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) look pretty cheap.

While China certainly has strong growth prospects, there are still risks. Can the country continue its torrid growth rate? What about political instability?

If you look at the history of US markets, strong IPO markets are usually a sign of excess and a top. So, investors should show caution.

And if you want to check out the IPO action here in the US -- which is not as frothy -- you can visit DealProfiles.com.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Alibaba, IPOs and Communists originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The IPO of Alibaba, the large Chinese e-commerce site, may show that the China stock markets are topping. The company appears to have raised $1.5 billion for about 17% of the company. This is good news for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), which invested a billion dollars in the site, but it could also make the US portal look bad. If the China market moves down before Yahoo! can off-load some of those shares, its initial investment in the company may not look like a coup.

The astonishing thing about the Alibaba IPO is that, according to The New York Times, "the I.P.O. price translates to a multiple of 55 times its forecast 2008 earnings." The number serves to point out the fact that, even with its economy growing at 10% a year, sustaining P/Es at this level will become impossible, as it did in the Japanese markets and US internet stocks in late 1990s. Both of those bubbles led to corrections of more than 50%.

The Shanghai Composite Index is now up well over 200% this year. The bull argument for an ongoing increase is that the emerging China middle class needs a place to invest its money and cannot move that capital into overseas equities. That makes the market overly dependent on one set of buyers.

Continue reading Does Alibaba's IPO mean China's markets have peaked?

Does Alibaba's IPO mean China's markets have peaked? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) reported results last night, showing revenue up 11% at $59 million. Operating income was under $13 million. The company has a market cap of $2.3 billion.

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) and Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) both reported results last month. Revenue gains were fine, but the base is still tiny. Baidu, the largest search engine in China, had a profit of only $19 million. But, it sports a market cap of $6.6 billion. It trades at 42 times revenue, compared to Google at less than 12x.

Therein lies the mystery. China has over 130 million web users, putting it second only to the U.S. But the revenue generated from its major web portals remains remarkably small.

The issue also points to whether valuations for these companies are much, much too high. It will take them a long time to become as big as Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) which has a market cap of $30 billion.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Will China's dot-com bubble burst? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

CDC Corp. (NASDAQ: CHINA) is a favorite speculative idea for 2007 from momentum trading expert, Kevin Kennedy. The editor of The Coolcat Report notes, "CDC operates companies focused on enterprise software applications and services, mobile applications, online games, and the Chinese portal China.com.

"The company's software solutions are used by more than 5,000 customers worldwide within the manufacturing, financial services, health care, home building, real estate, and wholesale and retail distribution industries.

"Its China.com unit is a leading Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) provider and Internet services company operating principally in China. CDC Mobile is focused on providing MVAS products to subscribers in China. CDC Games Limited is one of the market leaders of online and mobile games in China with more than 37 million registered users.

"CDC reported blowout third-quarter results in November. Total revenue was $78.2 million, an increase of 26%. Earnings per share tripled to $0.09 per share. Future plans include an initial public offering of either CDC Software or CDC Games and a continued emphasis on acquisitions. The stock is on a five-month win streak, including a 41% surge in November."

Top Picks 2007: Coolcat goes online for China.com originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 27 Dec 2006 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.