Vipshop Holdings climbed higher in morning trade today after the company reported mixed Q4 financial results. For the fourth quarter, the Chinese online discount retailer posted EPS of 12 cents, down from the mean forecast of 14 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter skyrocketed 108.9% versus the year-ago quarter to $1.36 billion, beating analysts forecast of $1.23 billion. The number of active customers for the three-month period saw a solid growth of 114.2% to 12.2 million. Looking forward, Vipshop issued upside guidance for the current quarter. The company now expects revenue to be $1.25 billion -$1.30 billion. That represents an increase of 78% to 85% from the year ago period, and stands above the $1.21 billion mean forecast.
Shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group came in under pressure as its results missed analysts’ expectations. The company earned $8 million during the fourth quarter, yielding EPS of 8 cents. Analysts were looking for earnings of 24 cents per share. The offshore oil and gas services contractor had $207.2 million in revenue for the same period. The company posted full year profit of $195 million or $1.85 per share with $1.11 billion in revenue.
The share price of Real Goods Solar was dragged down to new low as the company said it expects to report approximately $18 million in total Q4 revenue from continuing operations. The amount is same as was reported in the prior year quarter. Loss from continuing operations is expected to be greater than $13 million as compared to about $2 million for the prior year quarter. Net loss is expected to be around $16 million, far above the $3 million seen in the prior year quarter.
Walter Energy was getting crushed after the U.S. coal miner posted loss in its fourth quarter that was higher from what analysts had expected. The company attributed the wider loss to weak coal prices. It now expects lower metallurgical coal sales this year. Adjusted loss came in at $1.97 per share, in the October-to-December quarter. Analysts were looking for $1.59 loss per share. Revenue for the quarter dropped 39.5 percent to $285.6 million. Analysts had expected $326 million. Looking ahead, the company foresees metallurgical coal sales will fall in a range of 8.5 MMTs to 9 MMTs in 2015 as compared to $9.7 MMTs in 2014.
