Sea Ltd (SE) Reports Strong Revenue for Q4, Shares Up

Sea Ltd (NYSE:SE) started in 2009 as an online gaming company. It generates most of its revenue from digital entertainment primarily through selling in-game items to players. Sea diversified over the years, stepping into a couple of new segments. It started digital payments service AirPay in 2014, and e-commerce online shopping platform Shopee in 2015.

The company went public in 2017 by pricing its shares at $15. Its stock has grown at an exceptional rate since then, currently hovering around $260 per share. Much of that growth came in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic drove the demand for gaming and e-commerce platforms. Sea stock value skyrocketed around 400 percent in 2020.

The Singapore-based e-commerce and video game company on Tuesday announced strong revenue for the fourth quarter, however its net loss widened on a year-over-year basis. Sea reported revenue of $1.6 billion, significantly higher than $777.2 million in the comparable period of 2019. However, its net loss of $523.6 million in Q4 was wider than a loss of $283.8 million it reported in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue at the digital entertainment segment rose 71.6 percent to $693.4 million, as paying users in the quarter climbed 119.5 percent on a year-over-year basis. Comparatively, revenue from the e-commerce segment skyrocketed 178.3 percent to $842.2 million, as gross orders reached 1 billion in the quarter.

The company projected e-commerce revenue in the range of $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion for FY 2021. The midpoint of the outlook represents a surge of 112.3 percent from 2020.

Sea (SE) shares rose nearly 4 percent on Wednesday morning after releasing its Q4 financial results. The stock has jumped nearly 430 percent during the past 12 months, and nearly +30 percent so far in 2020.