Alibaba Group Holding, the world’s largest e-commerce company, is expected to report another strong quarter of sales in the three months to September 30, as its preparations intensify for the Singles’ Day online shopping festival next week.
Analysts estimated New York-listed Alibaba’s total second-quarter revenue for its fiscal year that ends March would increase about 50 per cent year on year.
“We model total revenue to grow 51.7 per cent to 33.64 billion yuan (HK$38.55 billion) versus [market analysts’] consensus estimate of 33.94 billion yuan,” Alicia Yap, the head of regional internet research at Citi Research, said in a report published ahead of Alibaba’s earnings announcement on Wednesday.
Yap estimated Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume, the total amount of goods sold through the company’s vast online retail platforms, to have grown 22 per cent year on year to 872 billion yuan in the past quarter.
Citi maintains a “buy” rating on Alibaba shares, and has raised its target price to US$133, up from the previous US$112.
In an open letter to shareholders early last month, Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang Yong said: “During fiscal year 2016, our China retail marketplaces reached a historical milestone when annual gross merchandise volume transaction surpassed 3 trillion yuan, making Alibaba Group the largest retail ecosystem in the world.”