Shares of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) opened more than 13% higher on Thursday morning after management raised its full-year revenue guidance at the company’s annual investor day in Hangzhou earlier today.
In an announcement that the Financial Times said drew “gasps of wow” from investors, Alibaba Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu revealed that the company now expects revenue growth of 45% to 49% in the 2018 fiscal year.
That type of growth is not only shocking for a company of Alibaba’s size, but it’s also well ahead of our current consensus estimates. Indeed, heading into today, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s full fiscal year sales called for revenue growth of just 31%.
The Chinese e-commerce giant is growing rapidly thanks to its dominance in the country’s online marketplaces, as well as its continued growth in logistics, data management, and cloud computing. The company has also been expanding its media and entertainment divisions over the past few years.
Alibaba’s latest sales projections would mark one of the company’s strongest years to date. Last year, revenues grew about 56%, but that included the impact of Lazada, a regional e-commerce company that was included in Alibaba’s sales figures starting in April. Without that unit, Alibaba grew by about 45%.
Interestingly, Wu did not mention Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume figures. The company no longer reports GMV in its quarterly reports.
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