Naver Q1 net income down 71.1 pct to 43.7 bln won

SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap) -- Naver Corp. on Monday reported its first-quarter net income of 43.7 billion won (US$33 million), down 71.1 percent from a year earlier.

Operating profit for the January-March period was 330.5 billion won, up 9.5 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales rose 23.6 percent to 2.28 trillion won.

The earnings fell short of market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 224.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
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