YY Inc. (Nasdaq: YY) reported its fourth-quarter financial results this morning, as S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were marginally lower. YY stock was trading over $50, up by close to 4 percent. Crude oil and gold each traded marginally higher. MarketWatch reports that the Federal Reserve Board's Open Market Committee will begin a two-day meeting later today, where Chair Janet Yellen is widely expected to hike the federal funds overnight rate, the benchmark for U.S. interest rates.
YY reported EPS of $1.40, beating the Wall Street analyst consensus of $1.03 by $0.37, or close to 36 percent.
Year over year, EPS grew by 84.2 percent. The Chinese social-networking firm reporting revenue of $357.8 million, also beating street views of $352.0 million, as reported by Yahoo Finance. On a year-over-year basis, Street Insider reports that revenue grew by 30.8 percent.
YY issues revenue guidance
Looking forward, YY management issued revenue guidance for a range of "$316.9 million to $331.3 million" for the current quarter. Last year, YY's total profits were $219.5 million. Total revenue for the firm was $1.18 billion, as reported by AP.
Going into today's report, analysts expected YY EPS to grow by 24.2 and 23.2 percent in the current and coming fiscal years. Over the next five years, analysts see EPS growing at an average annual rate of only 3.2 percent.
Forecasts are likely to change with today's report. YY last reported an operating margin of 21.53 percent, a profit margin of 17.2 percent, and a return on equity of 35.28 percent.
Average YY stock price target of $59.25
Since coming public in 2012, shares of the Chinese employer of 3,317 have gained by more than 330 percent, compared with a gain of just over 60 percent for the broad market, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Over the past year, the broad market has outperformed YY stock, returning just over 21 percent, compared with a loss of 9 percent for the Guangzhou-based firm's equity. Going into today's report, of the 15 firms tracked by Yahoo Finance that publish price targets for YY stock, the average target was $59.25, with targets ranging from $41.96 to $89.91. The average recommendation among the firms was 2.0, where 1.0 is a "strong buy," and 5.0 is a "sell."
