StarMedia slips after beating 2Q estimates

StarMedia Networks trimmed 3/4, or 5 percent, to 14 3/8 Tuesday after posting a smaller-than-expected loss in its second quarter.

In the quarter, StarMedia dropped $44 million, or 67 cents a share, on sales of $13.8 million.

First Call Corp. consensus expected the Spanish- and Portuguese-language online network, to lose 70 cents a share in the quarter.

In the year-ago quarter, StarMedia posted a loss of $22.1 million, or 43 cents a share, on sales of $3.9 million.

"StarMedia Network's second quarter results show our continued ability to aggregate the largest audience of online users in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world and moreover, to monetize that audience," said CEO Fernando Espuelas in a prepared release.

Its total page views in the quarter jumped 30 percent sequentially to 2.7 billion. Total unique visitors in June surpassed the 12 million-user mark.

Last quarter, StarMedia beat the Street when it posted a loss of $35.1 million, or 54 cents a share, on sales of $10.1 million.

The stock moved up to a 52-week high of 61 in February before falling to a low of 13 earlier this month.

Seven of the nine analysts following the stock rate it either a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation.

First Call Corp. consensus expects StarMedia to lose 53 cents a share in the third quarter and $2.29 a share in the fiscal year.