Tag Archives: bidu

Alibaba Posts Highest Growth In A Year Despite Sluggish China

China e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA ) turned in a quarterly earnings report early Thursday that largely eased concerns of slowing performance, despite a sluggish Chinese economy. Alibaba reported revenue of $3.75 billion for its fiscal Q4 ended March 31, beating the Wall Street consensus of $3.58 billion. Sales rose 39% in local currency year over year, the company’s highest growth rate in the past four quarters. Earnings per share minus items rose 88% to 33 cents, but that was far below the consensus of 55 cents. Costs associated with new businesses initiatives and rising logistics and order-fulfillment costs weighed on the company. Still, Alibaba stock was up nearly 4% in early trading in the stock market today , near 79. The stock is up 35% from a seven-month low of 59.25 touched on Feb. 9. Alibaba credited the revenue beat to strong growth in mobile users, active buyers and transactions on its China e-commerce platforms. “Our focus on long-term strategic priorities — globalization, rural expansion, building a world-class cloud computing business and creating a comprehensive media and entertainment platform — has laid a strong foundation for future growth,” Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said in the earnings release. Alibaba competes with JD.com ( JD ), Baidu ( BIDU ) and Tencent Holdings ( TCEHY ) in various segments of China’s Internet economy. JD is China’s largest online direct-sales retailer, Tencent dominates in messaging and gaming, and Baidu is China’s search leader. The four are the largest Internet companies in China and have been investing aggressively in new areas to spur growth. JD is scheduled to report earnings before the market open on May 9. Alibaba reported gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $115 billion, slightly edging the consensus of $112 billion and up 24% year over year. Transactions through mobile devices accounted for 73% of GMV volume. It reported annual active buyers of 423 million, up 16 million from the prior quarter and up 21% year over year. Monthly mobile active users reached 410 million, an increase of 17 million from the prior quarter and up 42% year over year. Alibaba’s cloud computing and Internet infrastructure business continued its rapid expansion, with revenue jumping 175% year over year to $165 million. That’s above the 126% growth achieved in the prior quarter.

Can Alibaba Beat Earnings Expectations On This Important Metric?

China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group ( BABA ) will post quarterly earnings before the market open Thursday, with investors hoping for a strong boost in the value of goods sold on its various platforms. Analysts are looking for the China e-commerce giant to report revenue of $3.58 billion, up 33% in local currency, and EPS of 56 cents, up 21% in local currency, for the company’s fiscal Q4 ended March 31. Alibaba reported better-than-expected fiscal Q3 earnings, but shares fell 4% that day due to a slowdown in a key metric known as gross merchandise volume. GMV is the total value of goods sold on the Alibaba platforms. In fiscal Q3, Alibaba’s GMV rose 23% to $149 billion, slowing from an increase of 28% in fiscal Q2. For the March quarter, Wall Street expects Alibaba is to report GMV growth of 22%, to $112 billion. Among those looking above that consensus, ITG Investment Research analyst Henry Guo projects GMV growth of 23.5%, while RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney pegs it at a more optimistic 29%. Mahaney rates Alibaba stock outperform, with a price target of 89. Alibaba stock was down a fraction, near 75.50, in morning trading in the stock market today . The stock is up 27% from a seven-month low of 59.25 touched on Feb. 9. Alibaba competes with JD.com ( JD ), Baidu ( BIDU ) and Tencent Holdings ( TCEHY ) in various segments of China’s Internet economy. JD is China’s largest online direct-sales retailer, Tencent dominates in messaging and gaming, and Baidu is China’s search leader. The four are the largest Internet companies in China and have been investing aggressively in new areas to spur growth. JD is scheduled to report earnings before the market open on May 9.

Baidu Falls Again; Probe To Focus On Sponsored Ads, Health Care

U.S.-listed shares of Baidu ( BIDU ) fell for the second day amid a Chinese government probe of China’s Internet search leader after the death of a university student. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has reportedly set up a task force to investigate Baidu  amid mounting criticism over its prominent placement of sponsored health care services providers in its search results. “We think this incident will have some negative impact on Baidu’s share price and its search business. In view of the public outrage triggered by this incident, the task force could convict Baidu of wrongdoing at the end of its investigation and could suggest certain punishments to appease the public,” Jialong Shi, an analyst at Nomura Securities, said in a research report. “A minimal punishment would be a cash fine for violation of certain regulations or misconduct as an ad publisher,” the Nomura analyst said. “A more material impact would be a complete/partial ban on health care advertising on the Internet, including search engines. Based on our industry sources, Baidu derives 20% to 30% of its search revenue from the health care category.” Baidu stock was down more than 2% in late-afternoon trading in the stock market today , at a nearly two-month low near 175, after falling 7.9% Monday. Baidu has an IBD Composite Rating of 76 out of a possible 99. It is now in sell territory, down nearly 8% after a breaking out from a cup-with-handle base at 189.90 on March 29. The 21-year-old university student, Wei Zexi, died last month of a rare form of cancer. He had used the Chinese search engine to look for treatment for his cancer and later died after receiving care at a hospital he had found on Baidu search results. “A more profound negative impact would question Baidu’s brand as a trustworthy and reliable search engine,” said the Nomura analyst. “The overwhelming negative press coverage over this incident could once again shake Internet users’ trust in Baidu’s search results.” In 2010, China’s state-run television accused Baidu of promoting counterfeit drugs through its search engine.