MW UPDATE: Alibaba shares gain after earnings beat expectations
By Emily Bary
Company said home furnishings, consumer electronics were strong categories in the latest quarter
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s U.S.-listed shares inched up in premarket trading Tuesday after the Chinese e-commerce giant topped sales expectations for its latest quarter and showed an improving profit trajectory.
The company reported net income of RMB79.43 billion ($12.17 billion), or RMB28.85 a share, up from RMB52.31 billion, or RMB19.55 a share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, Alibaba $(09988)$ earned RMB22.03 a share, compared with RMB18.19 a year prior. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting RMB20.71 in adjusted earnings per share.
Alibaba's revenue for the fiscal third quarter came in at RMB221.08 billion, up from RMB161.46 billion a year prior and above the FactSet consensus which called for RMB214.293 billion.
U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba were up 0.4% in premarket trading.
Revenue for Alibaba's core commerce segment, which includes its Tmall and Taobao marketplaces, rose to RMB195.54 billion from RMB141.48 billion, while analysts had been looking for RMB187.74 billion. The segment benefitted from Alibaba's 11.11 shopping festival, its biggest event of the year, which saw gross merchandise volume climb 26% compared with last year's event.
Overall for the quarter, Tmall's gross merchandise volume for online physical goods increased 19% from a year earlier, excluding unpaid orders. Alibaba pointed to "rapid" growth in home-furnishing categories as well as accelerating growth in consumer electronics. The company also said that Taobao's gross merchandise volume for online physical goods was "robust."
Alibaba reported 779 million annual active customers as of the December quarter, as well as 902 million mobile monthly active users.
The company's cloud business saw revenue grow to RMB16.12 billion from RMB10.72 billion, while analysts had been modeling RMB16.69 billion. Alibaba pointed to "robust growth in revenue from customers in the Internet and retail industries and the public sector," according to its release.
Shares of Alibaba have lost 14.9% over the past three months as the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF $(KWEB.UK)$ has risen 25% and as the S&P 500 has increased 14%.
-Emily Bary; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2021 07:40 ET (12:40 GMT)
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