Alibaba Group swung to its first operating loss as a publicly listed company in its fiscal fourth quarter as a massive antitrust penalty it received last month dealt a blow on its earnings, Reuters reported Friday.

Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares were down almost 3% in choppy trading, even as the e-commerce company anticipated strong revenue this year, optimistic the pandemic-fueled shift to online shopping will remain resilient.

The company suffered a net loss of 5.47 billion yuan ($852 million) in the March quarter as analysts had expected a net profit of 6.95 billion yuan, estimates by Refinitiv show.

Alibaba posted adjusted earnings of $1.58 per share on $28.6 billion revenue. Analysts expected the company to report earnings of $1.79 on $27.8 billion revenue for the period ended March 31, according to FactSet.

Alibaba's strong outlook for 2022 revenue was overshadowed by a regulatory clampdown in China that resulted in the scrapping of a $37 billion IPO of its affiliate Ant Group and a $2.8 billion fine last month for anti-competitive business practices, the report said.

Jack Ma's flagship e-commerce company now seeks to refocus on its business, plowing all "incremental profit" back into tech and highly contested segments like community commerce, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said on Thursday.

"We've gone through all kinds of challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic ... anti-monopoly investigation and penalty decision by Chinese regulators. We believe the best way to overcome these challenges is to look forward and invest for the long term," Bloomberg quoted the CEO as saying on Thursday.

China has been expanding its crackdown on the local tech sector. Last month, regulators launched an inquiry into suspected monopolistic practices of food delivery company Meituan, a company that Alibaba's Ele.me competes with, according to CNBC.