Tag Archives: request

Can Alibaba Beat Earnings Expectations On This Important Metric?

China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group ( BABA ) will post quarterly earnings before the market open Thursday, with investors hoping for a strong boost in the value of goods sold on its various platforms. Analysts are looking for the China e-commerce giant to report revenue of $3.58 billion, up 33% in local currency, and EPS of 56 cents, up 21% in local currency, for the company’s fiscal Q4 ended March 31. Alibaba reported better-than-expected fiscal Q3 earnings, but shares fell 4% that day due to a slowdown in a key metric known as gross merchandise volume. GMV is the total value of goods sold on the Alibaba platforms. In fiscal Q3, Alibaba’s GMV rose 23% to $149 billion, slowing from an increase of 28% in fiscal Q2. For the March quarter, Wall Street expects Alibaba is to report GMV growth of 22%, to $112 billion. Among those looking above that consensus, ITG Investment Research analyst Henry Guo projects GMV growth of 23.5%, while RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney pegs it at a more optimistic 29%. Mahaney rates Alibaba stock outperform, with a price target of 89. Alibaba stock was down a fraction, near 75.50, in morning trading in the stock market today . The stock is up 27% from a seven-month low of 59.25 touched on Feb. 9. Alibaba competes with JD.com ( JD ), Baidu ( BIDU ) and Tencent Holdings ( TCEHY ) in various segments of China’s Internet economy. JD is China’s largest online direct-sales retailer, Tencent dominates in messaging and gaming, and Baidu is China’s search leader. The four are the largest Internet companies in China and have been investing aggressively in new areas to spur growth. JD is scheduled to report earnings before the market open on May 9.

Zendesk Gains Traction In Enterprise As Q1 Revenue Beats

Zendesk ( Z ) stock jumped after the provider of customer-support software to retailers reported a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss and raised its full-year 2016 revenue guidance. Zendesk stock was up more than 8% in early trading in the stock market today , near 25, and breaking out of a cup-with-handle base at a 23.87 buy point in heavy volume. San Francisco-based Zendesk said it lost 8 cents per share minus items, vs. analysts’ estimate of a 10-cent per-share loss. Revenue rose 62% to $68.5 million, topping views of $66 million. “Zendesk finished Q4 with over 75,600 customer accounts, up from 69,000 last quarter, representing a record 6,600 customer additions,” said Pacific Crest analyst Brendan Barnicle in a research report late Tuesday. “As a result, customer acquisition costs and return on acquisition costs improved in Q1 over Q4.” For 2016, Zendesk forecast revenue  of $302.5 million at the midpoint of its guidance range, which would be up 45%, and is $7.5 million above its earlier guidance of $295 million. Zendesk provides a cloud-based customer service software platform. In November, it announced a partnership with Microsoft ( MSFT ). Zendesk competes with Salesforce.com ( CRM ), Freshdesk and Desk.com. Zendesk is gaining traction in the enterprise market, says Bhavan Suri, an analyst at William Blair. “Zendesk signed 50% more deals with average contract value of more than $50,000, and the average deal size for these transactions increased 30% year-over-year — a clear indication of the company’s success in the enterprise market,” Suri wrote in a research report. However, Zendesk has only a so-so IBD Composite Rating of 64 out of a possible 99. IBD’s Computer-Software Enterprise group ranks just No. 126 out of 197 groups. Zendesk’s stock had plunged on Feb. 5 amid a broad sell-off in tech stocks amid concern over China’s slowdown, tech spending and falling oil prices.

IBD 50: Ligand Pharma Beats Q1 Estimates, Buys Device Royalties

Ligand Pharmaceuticals ( LGND ), an  IBD 50 stock, rose early Wednesday after the small biopharma beat Q1 estimates and announced an acquisition that helped lift its guidance. Ligand reported earnings  excluding one-time items of 97 cents a share, more than triple the year-earlier number, beating analysts’ consensus by 30 cents, according to Thomson Reuters. Revenue rose 103% to $29.6 million, topping consensus by about $3 million. As described in a recent IBD  New America  story, Ligand’s business model is based on developing or acquiring technologies used in drug development and partnering with larger biotechs and pharmas that can make them into commercial products. Much of the growth in Q1 revenue came from the timing of milestone payments, along with the January acquisition of Open Monoclonal Technology, which licenses its biotech platform to drug developers. Ligand’s royalty payments grew thanks to the continued ramp of Amgen ’s ( AMGN ) blood-cancer drug Kyprolis and Novartis ’ ( NVS ) low-platelet treatment Promacta. Ligand also said it had agreed to pay $17.5 million for royalties on multiple programs from CorMatrix Cardiovascular, a privately held company that sells devices that help regrow human tissue. Ligand is guaranteed a minimum payment of $2.75 million annually, but says this is expected to double over time as CorMatrix rolls out new products. “CorMatrix’s existing and pipeline medical devices address market opportunities estimated to exceed $1 billion annually,” Ligand said in its press release . Ligand added $2 million to its 2016 revenue guidance, of which $1 million was expected to come from CorMatrix, bringing the range to $115 million to $119 million. That was still on the low side of Wall Street’s average estimate of $118.5 million, but EPS guidance beat Wall Street, at $3.41 to $3.46. Last year, the company made $3.37 a share on $71.9 million in revenue. It also guided 2017 slightly below consensus, with $160 million and EPS of $5.03. Ligand stock was up 2% in early trading on the stock market today , near 122. The stock is No. 18 on the current IBD 50 list of top-performing names over the past 12 months, with a strong Composite Rating of 93 despite somewhat light trading volume.