Alibaba Health Shares Rise After Swinging to Profit in First Half
By Clarence Leong
Shares of Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd. rose strongly after it swung to a profit in its fiscal first half.
Alibaba Health's Hong Kong-listed stock gained 9.2% to 6.07 Hong Kong dollars (US$0.78) on Tuesday, paring year-to-date losses to 7.9%. The stock outperformed the Hang Seng Tech index's 4.7% rise and the benchmark Hang Seng Index's 3.5% increase.
The company said late Monday that it achieved a turnaround in its first half ended Sept. 30, posting a net profit of 160.7 million yuan (US$22.3 million), compared with a net loss of CNY231.8 million a year earlier.
Revenue for the period increased 23% from the year-earlier period to CNY11.50 billion, driven by its pharmaceutical direct sales business, which grew 24%, it said. Gross profit margin for that segment improved, thanks to stronger bargaining and digital-marketing capabilities, although overall gross profit margin was flat at 20%, Alibaba Health said.
The company said its pharmaceutical e-commerce platform served 27,000 merchants at the end of the period, up by 2,000 from a year earlier, while annual active consumers of its direct online stores rose more than 30 million to above 120 million over the same period.
Write to Clarence Leong at clarence.leong@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2022 22:25 ET (03:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.