Alibaba’s stock gains after earnings as company boosts buyback program

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
BABA,
+4.82%
fell short on adjusted earnings for its latest quarter but still was seeing its stock gain premarket Wednesday as the Chinese e-commerce player boosted its buyback authorization by $25 billion. The company reported fiscal third-quarter net income of 10.7 billion renminbi ($1.5 billion), or 5.65 renminbi per American depositary share, down from 46.8 billion renminbi, or 17.91 renminbi per ADS, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, Alibaba earned 18.97 renminbi per share, down from 19.26 renminbi a share a year before, while analysts were modeling 19.12 renminbi. Revenue rose to 260.3 billion renminbi from 247.8 billion renminbi and matched the FactSet consensus view. Cloud revenue increased 3% from a year before, while revenue from the Taobao and Tmall e-commerce platforms was up 2%. Alibaba called out strong growth in order volume and the number of transacting buyers but noted that average order value fell.