21Vianet -6.8% on Q4 EPS miss, spending growth
- 21Vianet's (NASDAQ:VNET) adjusted operating expenses rose 130% Y/Y in Q4 to $37.8M and made up 27.5% of revenue, up from 25.5% in Q3 and 18.7% a year ago. That, in turn, led EPS to miss estimates in spite of a revenue beat.
- On a non-adjusted basis, sales/marketing spend rose 107% to $16.1M, R&D rose 89.6% to $6.4M, and G&A rose 192.5% to $25.7M. Adjusted gross margin was 34%, even with Q3 and up from 29% a year earlier.
- Top-line numbers remained strong: Hosting and related service revenue rose 63.8% Y/Y to $96.1M thanks to data center cabinet, CDN, and cloud service growth; managed network service revenue rose 41.6% to $41.5M.
- Cabinet count rose 53% to 21,522, with 3,378 added in Q4 alone. A recent deal with investor/major cloud services provider Kingsoft will result in at least 5K cabinets being leased over the next 3 years.
- Revenue guidance is in-line: Q1 revenue of RMB883M-RMB924M (+54% Y/Y at the midpoint) vs. an RMB912.4M consensus, and full-year revenue of RMB3.91B-RMB4.11B (+45% at the midpoint) vs. a consensus of RMB3.98B.
- Shares have fallen to $16.52 AH. The 52-week low is $14.23.
- Q4 results, PR