BABA - Chinese tech stocks slip even as Weibo reports strong Q1 Alibaba signals more hiring

2023-05-25 09:56:50 ET

Chinese tech stocks largely fell on Thursday despite a couple of earnings reports from key companies and signs from Alibaba ( NYSE: BABA ) that it would continue hiring amid rumors to the contrary.

Alibaba ( BABA ) dipped less than 1% as the company said it would hire 15,000 people this year, Reuters reported .

That is in stark contrast to a report earlier this week that said the company would cut employees at it cloud unit and social media rumors that the company intended to cut 20% of its workforce.

Weibo ( NASDAQ: WB ) shares slipped around 1.5% even as the company reported adjusted earnings of 47 cents per share, topping estimates of 45 cents per share.

Revenue declined 14.6% year-over-year during the period to $413.8M, as advertising and marketing revenue, fell 17% from the year-ago period to $355.3M.

Weibo, which is akin to Twitter, ended the period with 593M monthly active users as of March, up 11M year-over-year.

In addition to the quarterly results, Weibo ( WB ) declared a special dividend of 85 cents per share, payable for shareholders of record as of June 26.

NetEase ( NTES ) fell nearly 1% after it reported first-quarter revenue that was in-line with estimates.

Other Chinese tech stocks were mixed on Thursday, as Bilibili ( BILI ), Kingsoft Cloud Holdings ( KC ) and JD.com ( JD ) fell more than 1%, while Baidu ( BIDU ) and PDD Holdings ( PDD ) eked out modest gains.

More on Alibaba and its future

• Alibaba: Significant Discount To Sum-Of-The-Parts Valuation Not Warranted
• Alibaba: Navigating A Disappointing Quarter, Approaching The Ninth Inning
• Alibaba: 6 Degrees Of Separation

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