Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) announced today its results for the quarter ending December 31.
Earnings per share (EPS) came in at RMB18.97 ($2.67), missing analyst expectations of RMB19.17. The company's revenue reached RMB260.35 billion, just shy of the consensus forecast of RMB260.65 billion.
In a significant move to enhance shareholder value, Alibaba announced a $25 billion increase in its share buyback program.
Shares were up 4.7% in pre-market trade.
“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,” said Eddie Wu, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group.
“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.”
The revenue from Taobao and Tmall Group saw a sequential increase of 32%, totaling 129.07 billion yuan, although it fell short of the expected 133.33 billion yuan.
Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group reported a 16% increase in revenue QoQ, amounting to 28.52 billion yuan, and above the consensus of 27.2 billion yuan.
Adjusted EBITDA was up by 0.7% annually to 59.57 billion yuan, beating the estimate of 57.27 billion yuan.