Alibaba (BABA) is following up its 60% year-over-year jump in revenue to $5.2 billion for the latest quarter with a two-day investor meeting June 8 and June 9 at its headquarters in Hangzhou, China.
Speakers at the event will include executive chairman Jack Ma, executive vice chairman Joe Tsai, CEO Daniel Zhang and CFO Maggie Wu. Alibaba will have a live webcast of the event beginning at 2:15 a.m. ET on Thursday and at 3:45 a.m. ET on Friday. The company will also update the webcast link with a replay of the webcast and a summary of the day’s presentations.
Alibaba’s stock has been on a run recently, closing up about 43% year-to-date to $125.64 on Tuesday.
The company reported lower-than-expected earnings for the 2016 fourth quarter in May at 63 cents, vs. 66 cents consensus estimate. The company attributed the miss to higher-than-expected taxes and the revenue beat helped ease the pain of the earnings miss.
Tigress Financial Partners CIO Ivan Feinseth said he expects the guidance issued at the event to be positive and, most likely, simply a reiteration of past guidance numbers. While the stock will probably not react to the expected in-line guidance, companies sometimes use the platform of their investor day to announce a new product or tool, which could send the stock up, he noted. “But they’re probably not going to release a negative bombshell like negative guidance at their own investor day,” Feinseth said.
Alibaba Head of External Affairs Brion Tingler said the executives’ speeches will be focusing on technology updates, such as improving algorithms, as a way to drive commerce. The company’s access to big data provides a moat for the business, or a competitive advantage against its peers, he said.
The company will most likely be talking about incorporating artificial intelligence, or machine learning, into its systems, Feinseth. If the company can analyze data to find patterns, then it has a better chance of figuring out what the “next big thing” is or to understand how it should be stocking its website.
