Benzinga | Aug 18, 2021 06:22AM EDT

Weibo Shares Pop On Q2 Revenue Growth of 48%, Issues Strong Q3 Guidance

* Weibo Corp (NASDAQ:WB) reported second-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 48% year-on-year to $574.5 million, beating the analyst consensus of $527.9 million.

* Weibo's Q2 numbers lie between Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Google's 62% revenue growth, and Baidu Inc's (NASDAQ:BIDU) 20% growth for the same quarter.

* Segments: Weibo's Advertising and marketing revenues rose 47% Y/Y to $502.3 million. Advertising and marketing revenues excluding ad revenues from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) rose 52% Y/Y to $462.4 million from a broad-based increase in advertising demand and strong sales execution.

* Value-added service (VAS) revenues grew 54% Y/Y to $72.1 million.

* Drivers: Monthly active users (MAUs) increased by 43 million Y/Y to 566 million in June 2021, while Average daily active users (DAUs) rose 16 million Y/Y to 246 million.

* Operating Income: Weibo's non-GAAP operating income jumped 83% Y/Y to $223.2 million. Baidu's non-GAAP operating income rose 1% Y/Y due to the relatively weaker revenue growth weighed on by higher SG&A and R&D expenses.

* Margin: The non-GAAP operating margin expanded 800 bps to 39%.

* Non-GAAP EPS of $0.79 beat the analyst consensus of $0.63.

* Weibo held $2.94 billion in cash and equivalents. It generated $94.1 million in operating cash flow in Q2.

* Outlook: Weibo sees Q3 revenue growth of 20%-25% representing $558.89 million - $582.17 million compared to the analyst consensus of $560.71 million.

* Price Action: WB shares traded higher by 6.15% at $49.20 in the premarket session on the last check Wednesday.