Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) has reported strong earnings results, with Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $1.30 easily beating consensus estimates by $0.44 and demonstrating 7% year-over-year growth. GAAP EPS of $0.16 beat Street expectations by $0.04.Revenue of $16.14B marked 22% year-over-year growth, topping estimates by $860M, due to the solid performance of BABA’s domestic retail businesses and robust cloud computing revenue growth.“Alibaba achieved the historic milestone of US$1 trillion in GMV [gross merchandise value] across our digital economy this fiscal year,” cheered Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba. “Our overall business continued to experience strong growth, with a total annual active consumer base of 960 million globally, despite concluding the fiscal year with a quarter impacted by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”Meanwhile Maggie Wu, CFO of Alibaba gave a promising outlook for the months ahead, stating: “Although the pandemic negatively impacted most of our domestic core commerce businesses starting in late January, we have seen a steady recovery since March. Based on our current view of Chinese domestic consumption and enterprise digitization, we expect to generate over RMB650 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2021.”Indeed, annual active consumers on the company’s China retail marketplaces reached 726 million for the quarter ending March 31, an increase of 15 million from December 31, 2019.Net cash provided by operating activities was RMB2,164 million ($306 million), down from RMB18,553 million in the same quarter of 2019, due to the one-off AliExpress Payment Services Restructuring. Excluding this expense, non-GAAP free cash flow would have been an inflow of RMB1,977 million ($279 million), says BABA.All ten analysts covering Alibaba currently rate the stock a buy- giving it a firm Strong Buy consensus. The $252 average analyst price target indicates upside potential of 19%, with shares currently flat year-to-date. (See Alibaba stock analysis on TipRanks).“We view the full impact & duration of the Covid-19 outbreak as an unknowable. But we remain very positive on BABA’s long- term fundamental outlook and view valuation as reasonable” comments RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney. The analyst has a buy rating on Alibaba, and sees shares reaching $230.“We are struck by recent government data that details that China Online Retail sales reached ¥8.5T RMB ($1.2T) in 2019 (up 19.5% Y/Y) and amounted to approx. 27% of China’s total retail sales. This scale, growth, and especially penetration all remain impressively robust, and we believe BABA remains the best play on this” he adds.Related News: Alibaba to Invest $1.4 Billion into Tmall Genie AI Capabilities Baidu May Use Nasdaq Delisting To Boost Value – Report Apple To Reopen More Than 25 U.S. Stores More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Amarin Down 10% in Pre-Market On Generic Approval * Foot Locker Earnings Miss On All Counts; Stock Down 6% In Pre-Market * Netflix Will Now Automatically Cancel Inactive Accounts * Nvidia Sinks Despite Stellar Earnings; Top Analyst Says Buy On Any Weakness
from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3bPgjbS
Shares in Boston Scientific (BSX) pulled back 2% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company announced concurrent offerings of $750 million of shares of its common stock and $750 million of shares of its Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock.The medical device manufacturer also expects to grant the underwriters separate 30-day options to purchase up to an additional $112.5 million of common stock and up to an additional $112.5 million of preferred stock.According to the statement, Boston Scientific will use part of the proceeds from to repay in full the remaining $750 million outstanding under its $1.25 billion term loan credit facility maturing on April 2021 and to pay the related fees, expenses and premiums.The remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, says BSX, which may include refinancing or repayment of other outstanding indebtedness and funding potential future acquisitions and investments.The closing of each offering is not contingent upon the closing of the other offering.J.P. Morgan and BofA Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offerings.On May 15, Boston announced the pricing of a public offering of $1.7 billion senior notes with $500 million in aggregate 1.9% notes due 2025 and $1.2 billion in aggregate 2.65% notes due 2030.BSX has plunged 18% year-to-date, but analysts are retaining an optimistic outlook on the stock’s potential. The Street has a Strong Buy consensus on Boston Scientific, with an average analyst price target of $43 (16% upside potential). (See BSX stock analysis on TipRanks)“Despite short-term delays and disruption to current launches and the product pipeline, we continue to like BSX’s innovation and growth profile” explains BTIG’s Marie Thibault. She reiterated her Buy with a $44 PT, but ‘meaningfully’ reduced her revenue forecast for 2020 as global revenue is expected to decline 45-50% y/y in April.Related News: Bluebird Prices New Shares At $55, Seeks To Raise $500 Million Gilead and Galapagos Score Positive Topline Results For Ulcerative Colitis Trial AstraZeneca-Merck Lynparza Prostate Cancer Treatment Gets FDA ApprovalPopular in the Community More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Amarin Down 10% in Pre-Market On Generic Approval * Alibaba Scores Earnings Beat With Revenue Surging 22% Y/Y * Foot Locker Earnings Miss On All Counts; Stock Down 6% In Pre-Market * Netflix Will Now Automatically Cancel Inactive Accounts