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Alibaba 2025 Q3 Net Profit Increased Significantly
Visitors at an Alibaba exhibition in Hangzhou city (CFOTO/Getty Images)
BABA BOOM

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen reportedly ups stake in Alibaba to $1 billion

It’s the latest vote of confidence in Alibaba after a year where everything’s gone right.

Luke Kawa

Game(Stop CEO) respects game.

Ryan Cohen, head honcho at GameStop, has reportedly increased his personal stake in Alibaba to about $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant has had everything go right in 2025: its recently released strong results, the success of its AI models, its AI partnership with Apple, the preservation (for now) of the “de minimis” shipping exemption, and a vote of confidence from another billionaire investor, David Tepper, who also doubled down on the stock heading into this year.

All this has helped propel shares up 60% year-to-date. In the S&P 500, only Super Micro Computer has enjoyed a larger gain in 2025.

Previous reports said Cohen had built a major position in the company in early 2023 and pushed it to boost buybacks, arguing that its shares were undervalued.

Comparing one e-commerce giant with a cloud business to another, Alibaba trades at far lower multiples than Amazon on both forward price to earnings and enterprise value to estimated EBITDA ratios.

Alibaba’s robust quarterly results, released on Thursday, helped spur a massive rally in Chinese tech stocks to end the week.

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Cisco beats expectations for Q2 sales and EPS; Q3 margin forecast is light

Cisco beat Wall Street expectations for sales and earnings in its fiscal second-quarter results, which it released after the close of trading Wednesday.

Shares slid 7% in the after-hours session. A lighter-than-expected forecast for fiscal third-quarter profit margins may have played a role.

For the fiscal second quarter of 2026, the computer networking equipment giant reported:

  • Non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.04 vs. the $1.02 expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.

  • Sales of $15.35 billion vs. the $15.11 billion consensus expectation.

  • AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers of $2.1 billion vs. $1.3 billion in the previous quarter.

  • Revenue guidance for fiscal Q3 of between $15.4 billion and $15.6 billion vs. $15.19 billion consensus estimate. 

  • Adjusted gross margin guidance for fiscal Q3 of 65.5% to 66.5%, compared with analysts’ forecasts for 68.2%.

  • Fiscal year 2026 sales guidance of $61.2 billion to $61.7 billion vs. previous guidance of between $60.2 billion and $61.0 billion.

Along with other companies like Lumentum, Corning, and new S&P 500 member Ciena, which provide things like the wiring and networking equipment needed to connect server racks, Cisco shares have had a strong start to 2026 as the AI data center boom continues to roll. 

Through the end of trading on Wednesday they were up 11% for the year, compared to a 1.4% gain for the S&P 500.

This is a developing story.

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McDonald’s Q4 earnings, sales beat Wall Street estimates

McDonald’s reported Q4 results on Wednesday that beat Wall Street’s expectations, which the company attributes to its value leadership.

For the last three months of 2025, the fast-food giant reported:

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $3.12, compared to the $3.05 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

  • Revenue of $7 billion, higher than the $6.8 billion analysts were penciling in.

  • Global comparable-store sales growth of 5.7%, compared to the 3.9% growth analysts were expecting. In the US, comparable sales grew 6.8% versus the 5.4% that was expected. The company said this was driven by positive check and guest count growth primarily from successful marketing promotions.

McDonalds has emphasized discounts and promotions, such as its $5 meal deals. “McDonalds value leadership is working,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a statement.

Shares were little changed in after-hours trading.

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