Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Stock Rises After Earnings Beat

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Alibaba release the earnings results for its fiscal third quarter before opening bell this morning, posting adjusted earnings of 99 cents per share, which was better than the consensus of 89 cents. The Chinese online retailer’s sales climbed 32% to $5.33 billion, which again was ahead of consensus at $5.11 billion.

Alibaba’s core retail business posts strong growth

Reported earnings were $192 billion or 76 cents per share, an increase of 114% year over year. Total gross merchandise volume for the calendar year 2015 climbed 30% year over year, putting the growth well ahead of China’s total retail sales growth of 10.7% for the year.

“Alibaba Group had an outstanding quarter, reaching a milestone of over 400 million annual active buyers and continuing our unrivaled leadership in mobile,” said Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang in a statement. “Our proven ability to deliver an unparalleled consumer experience and to help merchants attract, engage and retain buyers will drive future growth in our core business. We remain focused on our top strategic priorities, including global imports, rural expansion, increasing our footprint in first-tier Chinese cities and building a world-class cloud computing business.”

Alibaba dominates in mobile

Mobile monthly active users grew by 47 million sequentially to 393 million as mobile revenue made up 65% of the core China retail business. Blended monetization from the China retail marketplace business climbed to 2.98% in the quarter from the year-ago quarter’s 2.7%. Mobile monetization increased from 1.96% to 2.88%. Gross merchandise volume from the China retail marketplaces rose 23% to $149 billion. Sales from the China retail marketplace climbed 35% to $4.33 billion.

Mobile revenue grew 192% to $2.9 billion on the back of increases in mobile gross merchandise volume and higher monetization of mobile transactions. Mobile gross merchandise volume increased 99% to $101 billion, carried by growing mobile usage and higher spending.

Alibaba’s cloud revenue climbed 126% to $126 million on the back of growth in the number of paying customers and usage of the company’s cloud computing services.

Alibaba shares jumped in premarket trading this morning, climbing by as much as 3.96% to $72.25 per share. Year to date, the stock is down by more than 14%.

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