What Happened?
Shares of e-commerce and gaming company Sea (NYSE: SE) jumped 3.3% in the morning session after Maybank upgraded the stock to 'Buy' from 'Hold', viewing a recent selloff as overdone.
The analyst noted that the shares had dropped 36% from their 2025 peak, which created a more attractive risk-to-reward profile at current levels. Maybank kept its price target unchanged at $156. The firm believed that Sea's ongoing investments in its e-commerce platform, Shopee, particularly in its VIP program and fulfillment network, would strengthen its competitive position in Southeast Asia. The upgrade also pointed to future upside coming from Monee, the company's financial services arm.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $129.40, up 1.4% from previous close.
Is now the time to buy Sea? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Sea’s shares are quite volatile and have had 15 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 5 months ago when the stock gained 19.6% on the news that it announced strong second-quarter results that overshadowed an earnings miss.
The company's revenue grew 31.6% year-over-year to $5.26 billion, comfortably beating Wall Street's estimate of $5.01 billion. While its GAAP profit of $0.65 per share missed analyst expectations, investors appeared to focus on other positive metrics. The company's adjusted EBITDA, a measure of profitability, came in at $829.2 million, also beating consensus estimates. Furthermore, Sea demonstrated robust user growth, with paying users increasing to 61.8 million. This combination of strong top-line performance and an expanding user base fueled optimism about the company's prospects.
Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Sea’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $660.02.
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