Alibaba Q1 Results Top Estimates

(RTTNews) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. (BABA) reported Thursday net income for the first quarter that surged 51 percent from last year, driven revenue growth across all operating segments as well as lower costs and expenses.

In pre-market activity on the NYSE, Alibaba shares are gaining $3.28 or 3.46 percent to trade at $98.13.

"Due to the strong business momentum and our focus on operating efficiency across businesses, we achieved robust financial performance in the past quarter," said Toby Xu, CFO.

For the first quarter, Alibaba reported net income attributable to ordinary shareholders of 34.33 billion Chinese yuan or $4.75 billion, higher than last year's 22.74 billion yuan. Earnings per ADS were 13.30 yuan or $1.83, compared to 8.51 yuan a year ago.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the quarter was 44.92 billion yuan or $6.20 billion, compared to prior year's 30.25 billion yuan. Adjusted earnings per ADS were 17.37 yuan or $2.40, compared to 11.73 yuan last year.

Earnings per share were $0.23 and adjusted earnings per share were $0.30 per share for the quarter.

On average, 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.20 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company's revenue for the quarter grew 14 percent to 234.16 billion yuan or $32.29 billion from 205.56 billion yuan last year, primarily driven by the revenue growth across all its operating segments. The Street was looking for revenues of $31.16 billion for the quarter.

China commerce segment revenues increased 12 percent to 114.95 billion yuan or $15.85 billion, while International commerce segment revenue improved 41 percent to 22.12 billion yuan or $3.05 billion from last year.

Local services group segment revenue surged 30 percent to 14.45 billion yuan or $1.99 billion, Cloud intelligence group segment revenue increased 4 percent to 25.12 billion yuan or $3.47 billion and Cainiao Smart Logistics segment revenue grew 34 percent to 23.16 billion yuan or $3.19 billion from last year.

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