Alibaba Group Hldg Ltd Stock Price, News & Analysis

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) announced that KB Securities has chosen the NYSE FANG+® Daily 2x Leveraged Index for its KB Leverage FANG Plus ETN(H). This index aims to deliver approximately twice the daily return of the NYSE FANG+ Index, focusing on high-growth tech stocks. The ETN, launched on April 19, 2022, enables Korean investors to access key 'FAANG' stocks such as Facebook, Apple, and Amazon through a single instrument. ICE's indices serve as a benchmark for $1.5 trillion in global fund assets.

Alibaba Cloud and VMware announced the enhancement of the Alibaba Cloud VMware Service, aimed at accelerating cloud transformation for enterprises in China. This service allows seamless application modernization and workload migration between on-premises and cloud environments, promising improved performance, availability, and security. Key features include enterprise-grade compute capabilities, unified infrastructure management, and strong disaster recovery support. The service is designed to reduce operational costs and operational risks while facilitating digital innovation.

Information Services Group reports a record global combined ACV of $24.2 billion, up 31% year-over-year. The XaaS market reached $15.6 billion, marking a 43% increase, while managed services grew 13% to $8.6 billion. ISG forecasts 22% growth for XaaS and 5.1% for managed services in 2022. The report highlights rising enterprise costs and IT talent shortages affecting pricing and project execution. Notably, IaaS spending surged 51%, but Chinese hyperscalers saw a 15% sequential decline.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) has increased its share repurchase program from US$15 billion to US$25 billion, signaling confidence in future growth. The enhanced program will be effective for two years, ending in March 2024. By March 18, 2022, the company had already repurchased 56.2 million shares for approximately US$9.2 billion. Additionally, Weijian Shan has been appointed as an independent director, effective March 31, 2022, as Börje Ekholm steps down after six years.

Farfetch Limited reported a record GMV of $4.2 billion for 2021, up 33% year-over-year, with a 35% revenue increase to $2.3 billion. Q4 GMV rose 22% year-over-year to $1.3 billion, while Q4 revenue grew 23% to $666 million. The company achieved an Adjusted EBITDA of $36 million for Q4, marking its first profitable year at this level. Profit after tax reached $97 million, boosted by $217 million in non-cash gains. Digital platform GMV accounted for 85% of total GMV. The company remains optimistic about growth in 2022, focusing on expanding its luxury fashion market share.

Alibaba Group reported its financial results for Q3 2021, showing revenue of RMB 242.58 billion ($38.07 billion), a 10% increase year-over-year. Key segments contributing to growth included China commerce, which rose 7% to RMB 172.23 billion, and Cloud services, which grew 20% to RMB 19.54 billion. However, income from operations plummeted by 86% to RMB 7.07 billion due to a significant goodwill impairment of RMB 25.14 billion. Alibaba also announced plans for carbon neutrality by 2030 and repurchased $1.4 billion of shares, reflecting confidence in long-term prospects.

Weavr has successfully closed a $40 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global, marking its third funding round in just 18 months, totaling $55 million. This funding aims to facilitate Weavr's U.S. market launch and international expansion in the embedded finance sector. Weavr's innovative Plug-and-Play Finance model allows businesses to integrate financial services rapidly, diverging from traditional BaaS models that impose heavy costs and complexities. With a focus on simplifying compliance, Weavr is poised to expand across various industries globally.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) will release its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, before U.S. markets open on February 24, 2022. A conference call discussing these results will take place at 7:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (8:30 p.m. Hong Kong Time) the same day. Dial-in numbers for various regions are provided, and a live webcast will be accessible online. An archived version will also be available post-call.