Southeast Asia e-commerce leader Sea Ltd. saw its sales jump 37% in the final three months of 2024 as it boosted profitability — clearing a high bar set for its fourth-quarter report after Sea stock's 162% rally last year. U.S.-listed shares of Sea jumped in Tuesday trading.
Sea said early Tuesday that it earned 39 cents per share on sales of $4.95 billion for the December-ended quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet projected the Singapore-based company would earn 30 cents per share on sales of $4.65 billion. For the same period a year earlier, Sea posted a loss of 19 cents per share on sales of $3.62 billion.
Sea is the owner of the Shopee e-commerce network, which is the market leader in Southeast Asia and also does business in Taiwan and parts of Latin America. Sea also operates digital-payments provider SeaMoney and Garena, a global online games developer.
Overall revenue growth accelerated for a fourth straight quarter, with e-commerce sales growing 41.3% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the e-commerce business swung to $152 million, vs. a $225 million loss for the same period a year earlier. Wall Street was looking for $80 million in e-commerce adjusted EBITDA, according to FactSet.
"We delivered a great 2024 with all three businesses going back to strong, double-digit growth, exceeding our original guidance," Chief Executive and Chairman Forrest Li said in a press release. "It was also our second consecutive year of annual positive profit, with all three of our businesses recording positive adjusted EBITDA."
On the stock market today, Sea stock is up more than 8% at 133.95 in recent action.
Sea Bullish on 2025
Sea expects that Shopee can grow gross merchandise value by about 20% in 2025 while "improving profitability," according to Sea's press release.
Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt wrote following the report that the preliminary guidance was "well ahead of our 14.9% estimates and consensus of 17.2% year-over-year." Devitt holds an outperform call on Sea stock.
Shopee's gross merchandise value grew 28% to $100.5 billion for 2024.
Sea Stock Surged 162% Last Year
While still well below 2021 highs, Sea has followed up its triple-digit gain last year with a nearly 25% rally to start 2025. After taking a hit late in 2023, Sea stock rocketed higher last year because the firm's e-commerce sales accelerated while the company bolstered its profitability — helping reassure investors that Shopee can fend off competitors such as TikTok and PDD Holdings' Temu.
Shares pulled back to test support after a January breakout but rebounded above Sea stock's 10-week moving average in Tuesday trading.
Coming into the report, Sea stock had an IBD Composite Rating of 90 out of a best-possible 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup. The score combines five separate proprietary ratings into one rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Further, Sea's IBD Relative Strength Rating is 97 out of 99. The RS Rating means that Sea stock has outperformed 97% of all stocks in IBD's database over the past 12 months.
