'Jianpingxia' Contributes to Sohu.com, Inc. (SOHU) 3Q Beat; Summit Research Remains Sidelined

Summit Research reiterated a Hold rating on Sohu.com (NASDAQ: SOHU), and raised the price target to $55.00 (from $50.00), following the company's 3Q15 earnings report. SOHU reported results with both revenue and EPS ahead of consensus. The beat was thanks, in a large part, to blockbuster movie “Jianpingxia”.

Analyst Henry Guo commented, "Sohu reported 3Q15 results with both revenue and EPS ahead of consensus, thanks largely to the blockbuster movie “Jianpingxia”, which contributed $29M in net revenue and $23M in net profit for Sohu Group in the quarter. That said, considering the $14M negative currency impact, actually Sohu results came in slightly better than we had expected. Relatively soft 4Q15 guidance is mainly due to gaming business uncertainty and early stage of mobile portal initiatives. Further, management’s conservative commentary on macro-environment make us to further believe the company’s brand advertising business (including online video) should continue to underperform competitors over the next several quarters. While near term we don’t see any positive catalysts for portal and online video segments, we consider Sogou IPO a highly likely event earlier next year. We stay on the sidelines for now but believe the likely Sogou IPO in the future should help unlock value. We maintain our HOLD rating on SOHU shares with PT of $55."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Sohu.com click here. For more ratings news on Sohu.com click here.

Shares of Sohu.com closed at $50.52 yesterday.

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