Alibaba Group Holding boosted ts stock repurchases in the fourth quarter to $2.9 billion, up from $1.7 billion in the third quarter, as the company’s share price declined.
The Chinese e-commerce giant bought back $9.5 billion of stock during 2023, resulting in a net reduction of 3.3% of its shares outstanding after accounting for shares issued under employee plans, the company said in a filing Tuesday.
Alibaba’s…
Group Holding boosted ts stock repurchases in the fourth quarter to $2.9 billion, up from $1.7 billion in the third quarter, as the company’s share price declined.
The Chinese e-commerce giant bought back $9.5 billion of stock during 2023, resulting in a net reduction of 3.3% of its shares outstanding after accounting for shares issued under employee plans, the company said in a filing Tuesday.
Alibaba’s American Depositary shares are down 2.7% Tuesday to $75.43 as the Chinese Internet sector comes under pressure with the Kraneshares CSI China Internet exchange-traded fund down 3.7% at $26.01.
Alibaba investors would like to see the company get even more aggressive with share repurchases, given that the company was sitting on about $62 billion of net cash at the end of September. That is about a third of its current market value of around $190 billion.
Some investors also would like to see the company boost its dividend from the current 1% payout.
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
The stock currently trades cheaply at about nine times projected earnings in its current fiscal year ending in March.
Alibaba said it has $11.7 billion remaining under its current buyback authorization.
Barron’s made Alibaba one of our top stock choices for 2024. We argued that it amounted to a cheap China play given its low valuation and high cash position.
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
Alibaba paid about $79 a share on average for its fourth quarter repurchases, above the current share price. The stock declined in the period to $77.51 on Dec. 30 from $86.74 on Sept. 30. The company paid about $85 a share on average for the stock it repurchased during 2023.
Alibaba bought back the equivalent of 112 million of its U.S. shares during 2023, shrinking its share count to 2.5 billion. The stock also trades in Hong Kong.
Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com
Read More:Alibaba’s Stock Buybacks Rise in 4th Quarter to $2.9 Billion; Investors Want to See More
2024-01-02 16:30:00