Vipshop Stock Slumping as China Trading Halted

Vipshop is a Guangzhou-based holding company that operates as an online discount retailer for brands in China.

Weak manufacturing data in China sent the country’s markets plummeting, with the Shanghai index falling by 6.9% and the Shenzhen down by more than 8% before trading was halted on Monday.

Contributing to the decline in China’s market is a lower than expected Caixin survey, which was released earlier today, CNBC.com reports. The Caixin index is a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, with a focus on small and medium sized companies.

The Caixin December manufacturing PMI was lower at 48.2 versus 48.6 in November.

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its “risk-adjusted” total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer’s view or that of this articles’s author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation:

We rate VIPSHOP HOLDINGS LTD -ADR as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. This is driven by some important positives, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, notable return on equity, reasonable valuation levels, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• VIPS’s very impressive revenue growth exceeded the industry average of 38.0%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues leaped by 54.6%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company’s bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• VIPSHOP HOLDINGS LTD -ADR reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, VIPSHOP HOLDINGS LTD -ADR increased its bottom line by earning $0.23 versus $0.09 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($3.48 versus $0.23).
• Current return on equity exceeded its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of strength within the company. Compared to other companies in the Internet & Catalog Retail industry and the overall market, VIPSHOP HOLDINGS LTD -ADR’s return on equity significantly exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• The company, on the basis of net income growth from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed compared to the Internet & Catalog Retail industry average, but is greater than that of the S&P 500. The net income increased by 79.9% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $27.70 million to $49.83 million.