Alibaba's Stock Jumps As Sales Beat Forecasts

Alibaba's stock rallied 3.6% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the Chinese e-commerce giant reported an in-line third-quarter profit, but sales that were well above forecasts. Net earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 30 came in at $494 million, or 20 cents a share. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted per-share earnings were 45 cents, matching the FactSet consensus analyst estimate. Revenue rose 54% from a year ago to $2.74 billion, exceeding analyst forecasts of $2.61 billion. Gross merchadise volume transacted on Alibaba's China retail marketplaces increased 48.7% from a year ago, while mobile GMV represented 35.8% of total GMV. Annual active buyers at the end of September totaled 307 million, up from 279 million at the end of June. The mobile monetization rate increased to 1.87% from 1.49%. The stock closed Monday at a record high of $101.80 on Monday, or 50% above the initial-public-offering price of $68, and 8.4% above where it closed on the first day of trading on Sept. 19. In comparison, the S&P 500 has gained 0.4% since Sept. 19.