Here's Why Sea Limited Stock Rose by 18% Last Month
Shares of Sea Limited (NYSE: SE) rose 17.7% in April, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. This was in sharp contrast to the 4% decline for the S&P 500 -- a large monthly decline for an index. The company was able to buck the market's downward trend thanks to improving optimism among the analyst community in the middle of the month.
Investors have been preoccupied with competition for Sea's e-commerce platform, Shopee, from TikTok. In key markets including Indonesia, TikTok has merged e-commerce with its social video-sharing platform and it's been an effective combo. But it's been anything but stable -- things are constantly changing including TikTok recently raising its e-commerce commissions. And J.P. Morgan analyst Ranjan Sharma believes this benefits Sea's Shopee.
The changes to TikTok's commission structure aren't modest. According to The Information, TikTok Shop is going from 2% commissions to 8% commissions. That's a huge jump and could indeed help Sea's Shopee either by driving sellers to Shopee or by allowing Shopee to raise its prices along with the competition. And this is part of what drove the stock price higher.
Source Fool.com
