The shares of Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) were trading higher on Thursday after the Chinese e-commerce company reported strong financial results for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2016.
The stock price of the company increased over 4% to $78.86 per share at the time of this writing around 1:31 in the afternoon today.
Alibaba financial performance
Alibaba reported that its revenue increased 39% to 24.2 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, higher than the 23.22 billion yuan estimated by analysts based on data compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
According to the company its China retail marketplaces revenue expanded 41% to 18.34 billion yuan. Its active annual active buyers on its retail marketplaces in the country rise 16% to 423 million.
Its GMV transacted on its retail marketplaces in China was 742 billion yuan, up by 24%. Mobile GMBV accounted 73% of its total GMV.
Alibaba reported that its revenue from cloud computing and internet structure business grew 175% to 1.07 billion yuan. The company said the annual expansion rate of the business was 126%.
The company’s net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was $5.36 billion yuan, an increase of 85% from 2.89 billion yuan in the same quarter last year. Its diluted earnings per share (EPS) was 2.11 yuan, up by 88% from 1.12 yuan in the year ago quarter.
Its non-GAAP free cash flow was 4.38 billion yuan in the fourth quarter and 51.28 billion yuan for the fiscal year 2016.
Alibaba laid a strong foundation for growth
In a statement, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said, “Our focus on long-term strategic priorities—globalization, rural expansion, building a world-class cloud computing business, and creating a comprehensive media and entertainment platform—has laid a strong foundation for future growth.”
The company’s CFO Maggie Wu added, “Our excellent results this quarter reflect the unique strength of our core e-commerce business despite challenging economic conditions, as well as the emerging momentum of our balanced portfolio of businesses from mobile media to cloud computing.”
Wedbush Securities analyst Gil Luria, commented, “Whatever they are doing must be working, and most importantly it’s a sign that the Chinese consumer may not be weakening quite yet.”
 were trading higher on Thursday after the Chinese e-commerce company reported strong financial results for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2016.){kind=link}