Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Surges After Sales Beat Estimates

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Alibaba released the earnings results from its September quarter before opening bell this morning, posting adjusted earnings of 57 cents per share (RMB3.63) and revenue of $3.49 billion, a 32% year over year increase. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $3.367 billion and earnings of RMB3.46 per share.

As a result of this morning’s strong results, shares of Alibaba surged in premarket trades. As of this writing, the stock was up 10.87% at $84.68 per share.

Alibaba beats on most metrics

Reported earnings were $1.40 per share or RMB8.87. Alibaba attributed most of its revenue growth to revenue acceleration in the China retail marketplace as more consumers accessed the marketplace from mobile devices and also spent more on the platform.

EBITDA was $1.754 billion, coming out ahead of the consensus estimate of $1.664 billion. Gross merchandise volume rose 28% to $112 billion, which just barely missed the consensus estimate of $113 billion. Mobile gross merchandise volume was 62% of the Chinese online retailer’s total merchandise volume, amounting to $1.655 billion, which was a 183% year over year increase. In last year’s September quarter, mobile made up 55% of gross merchandise volume.

Alibaba had 386 million annual active buyers and 346 million monthly active users as of the end of the September quarter. The company said buyers continue to purchase across more categories, and it continues to build out its business by increasing its presence in more rural villages for both purchasing and delivery.

The online retailer had a monetization rate of 2.42% in the September quarter, compared to last year’s monetization rate of 2.3%. Mobile monetization was 2.39% compared to last year’s 1.87%.

Alibaba’s cloud business grows

Alibaba’s cloud computing and internet infrastructure segment saw revenue climb 128% to $102 million. The company said the cloud computing business’ accelerated growth was the main driver of the increase in the segment’s revenue. The segment saw the number of paying customers increase and began offering “more complex” services like its content delivery network and database services.

Management also said the Securities and Exchange Commission notified them to say it had finished its investigation and has decided not to pursue enforcement action at this time.

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