JD.com Stock Rises After Earnings Beat. Why Investors Are Relieved.

JD.com shares have dropped this year amid worries about the Chinese online retailer’s food-delivery investments. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

JD.com stock was rising on Thursday after the Chinese online retailer topped Wall Street’s targets, easing worries about in its food-delivery business.

The company’s American depositary receipts climbed 2.2% ahead of the U.S. open. Futures tracking the S&P 500 were flat.

The bump came after JD reported a quarterly adjusted net income of 7.4 billion yuan ($1.0 billion), as revenue rose 22% from a year ago to ¥356.7 billion ($49.8 billion). Analysts were expecting net income of $829 million on revenue of $46.6 billion, according to a FactSet poll.

The results will ease worries about JD’s food-delivery business, JD Logistics.

The company and its rivals Alibaba Group Holding and Meituan have been locked in a price war this year, which has driven up sales volumes but was expected to dent the companies’ bottom lines. JD CEO Sandy Xu said that food delivery had “made healthy progress during the quarter in metrics such as order volume growth, merchant base expansion, full-time rider recruitment, and more importantly, synergies with retail and other existing businesses of JD.”

The results are more good news for China’s stock market. WeChat owner Tencent reported better-than-expected earnings of its own on Tuesday, giving the likes of Alibaba and JD a nice bump. JD’s U.S. shares are still trading in the red for the year, though, dragged down by tariffs on China and concerns about the food-delivery business.

Corrections & Amplifications: JD reported quarterly adjusted net income of 7.4 billion yuan. A previous version of this story incorrectly said the company reported adjusted net income of 7.4 billion yen.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com