Alibaba stock dips after earnings

Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA), released Q4 2023 earnings results before the US market open on Wednesday.

The company achieved revenue of $36.67 billion, which was pretty much in line with analyst estimates. Revenue grew by 5% year-over-year.

Earnings per share was reported at $2.672 (down by 2% year-over-year), just shy of $2.672 per share expected.

Company overview

• Founded: 1999
• Headquarters: No. 969 West Wen Yi Road, Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China and George Town, Cayman Islands
• Number of employees: 235,216 (July 2023)
• Industry: E-commerce
• Key people: Joseph Tsai (co-founder & chairman), Eddie Wu (co-founder & CEO), J. Michael Evans (president)

CEO and CFO commentary

”We delivered a solid quarter as we are executing our focused strategies across the organization. Our top priority is to reignite the growth of our core businesses, e-commerce and cloud computing. We will step up investment to improve users’ core experiences to drive growth in Taobao and Tmall Group and strengthen market leadership in the coming year. We will also focus our resources on developing public cloud products and sustaining the strong growth momentum in international commerce business,” Eddie Wu, CEO of Alibaba said in a statement to investors.

Company CFO, Toby Xu also commented on the latest results: ”Alibaba Group delivered a healthy quarter with revenue growth of 5% year-over-year. We increased our investment in strategic priorities and improved shareholder return by leveraging our strong balance sheet and cash flow. Our board of directors approved an increase of US$25 billion to our share repurchase program, demonstrating our confidence in the outlook of our business and cash flow. Our consistent share repurchase has also reduced outstanding share count while achieving EPS and cash flow per share accretion.”

Stock reaction

The stock was trading at its highest level since 24/11/23 at market close on Tuesday.

Shares fell at the open on Wednesady after Q4 results were announced and were down by around 5.94% at $73.59 a share.

Stock performance

• 5 day: +2.04%
• 1 month: +3.12%
• 3 months: -13.16%
• Year-to-date: -4.99%
• 1 year: -29.94%

Alibaba stock price targets

• Robert W. Baird: $90
• Mizuho: $100
• Barclays: $109
• Benchmark: $128
• JP Morgan Chase & Co.: $110
• Morgan Stanley: $90
• Susquehanna: $150
• Truist Financial: $120
• UBS Group: $127
• Bank of America: $136
• HSBC: $135
• Citigroup: $147

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is the 62nd largest company in the world with a market cap of $184.07 billion, according to CompaniesMarketCap.

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Sources: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap