China's JD.com beats quarterly revenue estimates

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue on Tuesday as lockdowns in China to control the coronavirus boosted online shopping and the company's "618" shopping event.

The company reported second-quarter revenue of 267.6 billion yuan ($39.07 billion), up 5.4% year on year, topping analysts' average estimate of 262.31 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Revenue rose 11% in the first half to 507.3 billion yuan.

Sales in its product segment, which includes online retail sales, rose 2.9% in the quarter, while those from services such as logistics and marketing jumped 21.9%.

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Zephirin Group analyst Lenny Zephirin said JD.com is in a class of its own as timely contractual agreements with luxury brands were key to its profit beat in the quarter.

"We expect management to continue to push further into the Luxury categories for the upcoming holiday quarters, (particularly) the fourth quarter. The logistics segment should show a gradual improvement this quarter despite COVID-19 lockdowns," he said.

A number of Chinese cities including financial hub Shanghai experienced different degrees of lockdowns in the second quarter which seriously disrupted transport.

"The second quarter is the most challenging quarter since we're listed," JD.com Chief Executive Xu Lei said on a call with analysts before the U.S. market opened. He said the challenges were mainly due to the pandemic.

JD.com said net income attributable to ordinary shareholders rose to 4.38 billion yuan, or 1.37 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS) for the three months ended June 30, from 794 million yuan, or 0.25 yuan per ADS, a year earlier.

Excluding one-off items, the company posted a profit of 4.06 yuan per American ADS, compared with analysts' expectations of 2.71 yuan.

JD Logistics, which operates more than 1,400 warehouses and employs over 200,000 in-house delivery personnel, is also expanding its footsteps overseas. Its first automated warehouse in the United States, "Los Angeles No. 2", was launched in June.

Peer Alibaba beat expectations earlier this month, even as it reported flat quarterly revenue growth for the first time in its history.

"We like JD the most amid the zero-COVID-19 policy," Morningstar said in a research note published earlier this month. "Its self-owned logistics gives it more control over delivery relative to competitors."