Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA stock is trading higher Friday after the company’s fiscal second-quarter print.

The Jack Ma co-founded e-commerce giant reported fiscal second-quarter 2024 revenue growth of 5% year-on-year to $33.70 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $33.47 billion. Adjusted earnings per ADS of $2.15 missed the analyst consensus estimate of $2.26. 

Adjusted net income declined 9% Y/Y to $5.20 billion.

Also Read: Bilibili’s Q3 Earnings: Revenue Surges As Games Lead the Way, Stock Buyback And More

Segments: Taobao and Tmall Group revenue grew by 1% year over year to $14.11 billion. Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group revenue increased by 29% year over year to $4.51 billion, driven by the growth of cross-border businesses, in particular AliExpress’s Choice business.

Local Services Group revenue grew by 14% year over year to $2.53 billion, driven by the order growth of both Amap and Ele.me and revenue growth from marketing services. 

Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Limited’s revenue increased 8% year over year to $3.51 billion, driven by an increase in revenue from cross-border fulfillment solutions. 

Cloud Intelligence Group revenue grew by 7% Y/Y to $4.22 billion. Digital Media and Entertainment Group fell by 1% Y/Y to $811 million. All other revenue grew by 9% Y/Y at $7.44 billion.

In the Taobao and Tmall Group, customer management revenue grew 2% year over year due to the growth in online GMV.

Revenue from China’s commerce retail business remained firm year over year at $13.25 billion, while direct sales and other revenue declined by 5% year over year to $3.23 billion, primarily due to the decrease in appliance sales.

Revenue from China’s commerce wholesale business grew by 18% year over year to $853 million due to the increase in revenue from value-added services provided to paying members.

Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group: International commerce retail business revenue grew by 35% Y/Y to $3.65 billion, primarily driven by the increase in revenue contributed by AliExpress’ Choice and Trendyol. 

International commerce wholesale business revenue grew by 9% Y/Y to $863 million.

Cloud Intelligence Group: Overall revenue, excluding Alibaba-consolidated subsidiaries, increased by 7% Y/Y, which was mainly driven by the double-digit revenue growth of public cloud products, including AI-related products.

As of September 30, 2024, Alibaba held $79 billion in cash and equivalents. It generated an operating cash flow of $4.48 billion, down 38% year over year.

During the quarter, it generated a free cash flow of $1.96 billion, down 70% year over year due to investments in Alibaba Cloud infrastructure, refunds to Tmall merchants and other working capital changes related to factors including the scale-down of certain direct sales businesses.

Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu noted strong performance in the Cloud segment, with public cloud product revenue seeing double-digit growth and AI-related offerings delivering triple-digit gains. He expressed increased confidence in Alibaba’s core businesses and plans to continue investing for sustained long-term growth.

Wu also pointed out improved operating efficiency across other segments, with many achieving higher profitability or narrowing losses.

Alibaba CFO Toby Xu attributed the quarter’s revenue growth to better monetization of the Taobao and Tmall platforms, including increased adoption of GMV-based service fees and the marketing tool Quanzhantui.

Xu stated that Alibaba repurchased $4.1 billion worth of shares during the quarter, reducing the total shares outstanding by 2.1% since the end of June, which contributed to increased earnings per share for shareholders.

Price Action: BABA shares traded higher by 3.80% at $94.02 premarket at the last check on Friday.

Also Read:

Photo Via Shutterstock