China Finance Online announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter and first nine months ended September 30, 2015.
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Net revenues were $37 million, an increase of 74.8% from $21.1 million during the third quarter of 2014 and 59.9% from $23.1 million during the second quarter of 2015.
During the third quarter of 2015, revenues from financial services, financial information and advisory business and advertising services contributed 83%, 12% and 5% of the net revenues, respectively, compared with 81%, 11% and 8%, respectively, for the corresponding period in 2014.
Revenues from financial services were $30.7 million, an increase of 79.8% from $17.1 million during the third quarter of 2014 and 82.8% from $16.8 million during the second quarter of 2015. Revenues from financial services comprise of equity and commodities brokerage services.
The year-over-year and sequential increases were mainly due to a significant increase in revenues from the company's commodities brokerage services as a result of the newly launched heavy oil brokerage business.
Revenues from financial information and advisory business were $4.4 million, an increase of 94.1% from $2.3 million during the third quarter of 2014 and a decrease of 6.4% from $4.7 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Revenues from financial information and advisory business comprise of subscription services from individual and institutional customers.
The company's social-driven stock selection platform iTouGu continued to grow in size and scale as it begins generating revenue in a more meaningful way. As of September 30, 2015 iTouGu had over 3.5 million activated users and over 2,000 investment advisors.
Revenues from advertising were $1.7 million, a decrease of 1.5% from $1.8 million in the third quarter of 2014 and an increase of 15.0% from $1.5 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Gross profit was $31.6 million, an increase of 97.4% from $16.0 million in the third quarter of 2014 and 73.3% from $18.2 million in the second quarter of 2015. Gross margin in the third quarter of 2015 was 85.6%, compared with 75.8% in the third quarter of 2014 and 78.9% in the second quarter of 2015.
The year-over-year and sequential increase in gross margin was mainly due to the significant increase in net revenues from financial services.
General and administrative expenses were $3.2 million, a decrease of 49.5% from $6.4 million in the third quarter of 2014 and 47.3% from $6.1 million in the second quarter of 2015.
The year-over-year and sequential decreases were mainly attributable to fair value adjustment of stock options granted to non-employees.
Sales and marketing expenses were $13.1 million, an increase of 43.9% from $9.1 million in the third quarter of 2014 and 48.4% from $8.8 million in the second quarter of 2015. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to an increase in sales bonus.
Research and development expenses were $2.5 million, a decrease of 4.6% from $2.6 million in the third quarter of 2014 and 6.9% from $2.7 million in the second quarter of 2015.
The company expects to continue investing in iTouGu as part of its long-term strategic goal of providing retail investors with a one-stop solution for their investment needs.
Income from operations was $12.9 million, compared with a loss from operations of $1.9 million in the third quarter of 2014 and an income from operations of $0.6 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Net income attributable to China Finance Online was $9.7 million, compared with a net loss of $2.4 million in the third quarter of 2014 and a net income of $4.1 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Fully diluted earnings per ADS was $0.39 for the third quarter of 2015, compared with a fully diluted loss per ADS of $0.11 for the third quarter of 2014 and a fully diluted earnings per ADS of $0.16 for the second quarter of 2015.
Basic and diluted weighted average numbers of ADSs for the third quarter of 2015 were 22.2 million and 24.8 million, respectively. Each ADS represents five ordinary shares of the company.
As of September 30, 2015, total cash and cash equivalents were $48.0 million, compared with $32.5 million as of December 31, 2014.
Total shareholders' equity of China Finance Online was $76.4 million as of September 30, 2015, compared with $64.6 million as of December 31, 2014. ■