Pinduoduo (Nasdaq: PDD) shares were 8% lower following its Q4 results. The company missed on the top line but beat on the bottom line. More concerning to investors, it had its slowest revenue growth in company history at 3%.
Since its IPO in 2019, Pinduoduo (NYSE: PDD) was considered to be one of the most promising stocks as it was one of the innovators in the 'social ecom' space. This was basically utilizing chat apps to sell products with users able to earn a commission for making sales.
The company had initial success with fruits and vegetables but has expanded into all sorts of categories. However, Pinduoduo's stock momentum was halted by the crackdown in China on tech companies and the global bear market in tech stocks.
As a result, Pinduoduo shares are down nearly 80% from their all-time highs in February 2021. Shares are higher by nearly 90% from their lows earlier this month as there is renewed hope that the worst may be over for Chinese tech companies given agreement on a framework to audit Chinese companies listed in the U.S. between Chinese and U.S. regulators and comments from authorities that the crackdown is over.
Inside the Numbers
In Q4, Pinduoduo reported a profit of $1.04 billion which was an improvement from a loss in the same quarter last year. The company attributed the profit to better cost management and a one-time credit from a service provider.
Revenue came in at $4.3 billion which was below expectations of $4.7 billion and only a 3% improvement from last year. Gross merchandise value increased by 46% for the full year and reached $383 billion.
One headwind for Pinduoduo is that many new entrants have come into the social selling space including behemoths like Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and TenCent (OTC: TCEHY), who have been able to use their platforms to win market share away from Pinduoduo. Further, Pinduoduo is reliant on these platforms for traffic.
Overall, investors have a similar dilemma with Pinduoduo as they do with other Chinese stocks. The stocks look quite cheap and attractive by a variety of metrics. However, it's possible that growth has been exhausted and near-term risks have abated. But, the lesson from former high-flyers is that even cheap stocks can be poor investments once the company's business has plateaued.