Alibaba Down 4% In Pre-Market On Earnings Miss

(RTTNews) - Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) were falling more than 4 percent in pre-market on Tuesday to $80.94, after the Chinese e-commerce giant reported fourth-quarter profit below analysts' view.

Net income for the fourth quarter declined significantly to 3.27 billion Chinese yuan or $453 million from 23.52 billion yuan last year, primarily impacted by loss from investments during the quarter, compared to gain in the same quarter last year.

Earnings per ADS were 1.30 yuan or $0.18, compared with 9.00 yuan a year ago.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the quarter was 24.42 billion yuan or $3.38 billion, compared to prior year's 27.38 billion yuan. Adjusted earnings per ADS were 10.14 yuan or $1.40, compared to 10.71 yuan last year.

Earnings per share were $0.02 and adjusted earnings per share were $1.40 per share for the quarter.

On average, 19 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.41 per share for the quarter.

Revenue for the quarter, however, grew 7 percent to 221.87 billion yuan or $30.73 billion from 208.20 billion yuan last year. The Street was looking for revenues of $30.39 billion for the quarter.

Alibaba shares had closed at $84.60, up 5.70 percent on Monday. The stock has been trading in the range of $66.63 - $102.50 in the last 1 year.