Sea Limited (SE): A Bull Case Theory

We came across a bullish thesis on Sea Limited (SE) on Global Equity Briefing’s Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls’ thesis on SE. Sea Limited (SE)'s share was trading at $164.06 as of 23^rd May. SE’s trailing and forward P/E were 114.73 and 64.94 respectively according to Yahoo Finance.

Sea Limited, a leading digital conglomerate in Southeast Asia, operates through three core segments: e-commerce (Shopee), digital entertainment (Garena), and fintech (Monee). Under the leadership of founder Forrest Li, who holds around 8.6% of the company, Sea has aligned management incentives with shareholder value through a $1.32 billion stock option package granted in 2022, exercisable at $120 per share and vesting over five years. Shopee, the company’s largest revenue contributor, has achieved notable scale advantages through its logistics arm, SPX Express, which handles over 50% of deliveries in Asia and 70% in Brazil.

These efficiencies have reduced order processing costs by 15% and 23% year-over-year in Asia and Brazil, respectively. Shopee’s network effects are amplified by cross-platform synergies with Monee and Garena. Monee, Sea’s fintech arm, has over 50 million active users, driving transaction volume across Shopee and other services. Garena’s flagship game Free Fire serves as both a profit engine and a user acquisition tool, particularly in new markets like Brazil. In 2024, Sea reported $16.8 billion in revenue and $447.8 million in net income, reflecting both operational scale and improved cost control.

However, Sea faces increasing competition from TikTok Shop, Grab, and Lazada, while regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical tensions remain key risks. TikTok Shop is gaining momentum with over $16 billion in GMV in 2023. Despite these challenges, Sea’s integrated ecosystem, leadership continuity, and logistics capabilities position it well for long-term growth across emerging digital markets.

Previously, we have covered Sea Limited (SE) in March 2025 wherein we summarized a bullish thesis by Wolf of Harcourt Street on Substack. In the article, the author praised SE for its strong earnings rebound, driven by Shopee’s accelerating growth, Garena’s user resurgence, and Sea Money’s disciplined lending expansion. Despite a slight earnings miss, revenue jumped 37% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA rose 366%, reflecting operating leverage and cost efficiencies. Since our last coverage, the stock is up 20.9% as of 26^th May.

Sea Limited (SE) is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 86 hedge fund portfolios held SE at the end of the fourth quarter which was 58 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of SE as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SE but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.