Alibaba to buy back up to $4B in shares

Exhibition visitors walk past the exhibition booth of the Alibaba Group on the opening day of the CeBIT 2015 international computer expo in Hanover, Germany, on March 16, 2015.(Photo: Christian Charisius, European Pressphoto Agency)

Alibaba announced it will buy back up to $4 billion in shares over the next two years, part of a mixed first quarter results report.
The e-commerce giant reported first-quarter revenue of $3.27 billion, falling short of Wall Street estimates of $3.4 billion. The 28% increase in revenue year-over-year marks the slowest pace in growth since Alibaba became a publicly-traded company last September. During the fourth quarter, Alibaba revenue grew 45%.
Earnings per share squeaked by forecasts, with 59 cents a share. Alibaba shares plunged 5.5% in pre-market trading. Meanwhile, shares of Yahoo, which owns a stake in Alibaba that they plan to spin off this year, are down 4%.
Since launching its IPO in September, shares have plunged from a peak of $119.15 in November to below $80 a share.
Gross merchandise volume -- or total sales -- among Chinese retail marketplaces topped $109 billion, a 34% jump from last year. Sales generated from mobile devices more than doubled, and represent 55% of their overall sales.
"We had a strong quarter and we continued to build the foundations for future growth," says Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang in a statement.
Revenue from cloud computing jumped more than 106% compared to last year. Last month, Alibaba announced it is investing $1 billion into its cloud computing business, Aliyun, to open data centers in the Middle East, Europe and Japan.
One of Alibaba's priorities is making "Western goods accessible to Chinese consumers," says Wedbush Securities analyst Gil Luria. The company announced Macy's will launch an online flagship store in China through its Tmall shopping service.
The company is also planning a major international expansion. It hired Goldman Sachs executive Michael Evans as its president, tasking him with creating plans to broaden its business beyond China.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.