Sea Limited Delivers Strong Q4 Results – Can the Growth Momentum Continue?

TradingKey - Sea Limited stock jumped 7% after the release of its Q4 earnings, as it was able to beat the estimates for both revenue and earnings per share.

• Revenue: $4.95 billion vs. $4.65 billion estimated (+37% yoy)
• EPS: $0.39 adjusted vs. $0.30 estimated (vs -$0.19 in 2023Q4)

Sea’s e-commerce arm, Shopee, once again was the main driver. Shopee's Q4 gross merchandise value (GMV) climbed to $28.6 billion, a 23.5% rise, largely driven by an increase in volume of orders (+20% yoy)

SeaMoney also saw substantial growth, with a loan book size of $5 billion, which was a 63.9% surge from the previous year's quarter.

The profitability of Sea also improved significantly, as we saw positive EPS compared to a negative EPS one year ago. The company did well in controlling the marketing expenses as they just increased by 8%.

Management’s outlook for 2025 is optimistic, projecting 20% GMV growth for Shopee, as the company is expanding in key markets such as Asia and Brazil.

Three years ago, Sea’s operation suffered a lot due to headwinds in the gaming business, increased competition in e-commerce and over-expansion. However, in the last year, the management did a good job stabilizing the operations, solidifying its market share in Southeast Asia and taking a more conservative approach towards marketing spending and expansion. Currently, Sea’s market capitalization is $76 billion, which is well-bellow other peers such as Alibaba ($312 billion), Pinduoduo ($158 billion) and Shopify ($132 billion).