Analysts polled by FactSet were looking for earnings of $1.04 a share and revenue of $282.5 million.
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Sothebys (NYSE:BID) had a strong second quarter that masks the company’s current struggles in the art market.
“Collectors are still buying quality works of art in well-curated sales”, Tad Smith, Sotheby’s president and chief executive, said. Revenue was down 10% at $298.7 million amid a soft art market, but that easily topped views for $291.22 million.
A change in the timing of the summer contemporary art sales in London helped to limit a fall in Sotheby’s net income from $72.8 million to $63.1 million in the six months to the end of June.
Shares of Sotheby’s closed higher on Friday.
Comparisons between the two years may not be fair: The net increase of $67.6 million during last year’s second quarter was hobbled by a variety of factors that could not have had a similar impact in 2016.
However, the firm painted a slightly bleaker picture when it came to the wider market, reporting a 16 per cent decrease in net auction sales.
The company admits that it’s had a hard time in its business of auctioning pricy works of art, but it was able to counteract these losses with certain initiatives that will benefit Sotheby’s in the long run.
The move makes Taikang Life Insurance Co., one of China’s biggest insurance companies, the largest shareholder of Sotheby’s, eclipsing stakes held by hedge-fund managers such as Third Point’s Dan Loeb, who owns 11.38%, and Point72 Asset Management’s Steven Cohen, who owns 5.5%.
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Sotheby’s shares jumped by as much as 13% in trading on Monday after the earnings results showed a profit.
