By Tracy Qu

Alibaba Group is scheduled to report its fiscal third-quarter results on Thursday. Here is what you need to know:

NET PROFIT: The Chinese e-commerce titan is expected to report net profit of 25.74 billion yuan, equivalent to $3.74 billion, for the three months ended December, according to the consensus estimate of nine analysts in a FactSet poll. That would be a sharp drop from net profit of 48.95 billion yuan a year earlier.

REVENUE: Third-quarter revenue is expected at 285.89 billion yuan, according to FactSet, up from 280.15 billion yuan a year earlier.

The company's Hong Kong-listed stock fell 19% in the final three months of 2025 amid a broad decline in technology stocks. Some investors took profit after the Hang Seng Tech Index's rally in September. Alibaba's shares have declined 6.4% year to date, roughly in line with the tech gauge's 8.2% drop over the same period.

WHAT TO WATCH:

--DEPARTURES: Some key technical talents have left the company in recent months, including Lin Junyang, Alibaba's tech lead for its Qwen AI model series. Investors will want to hear more from management about the departures to gauge whether they will affect Alibaba's future model releases, Citi analysts said in a research note.

--FOOD DELIVERY: Alibaba likely continued to make solid progress in the on-demand delivery market, according to Jefferies analysts. Losses from the business are expected to have narrowed in the December quarter from the September quarter, the analysts wrote in a note. Key data, such as daily order volume and average order value, will be closely scrutinized, Jefferies said.

Write to Tracy Qu at tracy.qu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 17, 2026 22:52 ET (02:52 GMT)

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