This time last year, this company was the hottest thing on the planet. Alibaba is the largest online and mobile commerce company as measured by gross merchandise volume, and it had the highest profile initial public offering of 2014. But the stock has acted horrible since printing highs at $120 in mid-November of last year.
Merrill Lynch feels the dominance in Alibaba’s core business, the very hard barrier to entry for competition and new growth opportunities like cross-border e-commerce make the stock extremely attractive. With most of the damage to the China equity markets seemingly subsided for now, the residual effect to the company may subside.
Alibaba recently made a nonbinding offer to acquire the 82% of Youku that it doesn’t already own. This comes as little surprise to Wall Street, given Jack Ma’s vision for digital content and delivery. The Merrill Lynch team sees a few of the leading video sites continuing to struggle, but they also see a ton of synergies overall in the combination.
A few analysts weighed in on Alibaba ahead of its earnings:
- TH Capital upgraded the company to a Buy rating from Hold with an $84 price target.
- Evercore ISI has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $88 from $86.
- Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a Buy rating.
- Summit Research reiterated a Buy rating with an $81 price target.
- Wedbush reiterated a Hold rating but lowered its price target to $75 from $80.
So far in 2015, Alibaba has underperformed the markets, with the stock down 27% year to date. But it is only down 20% over the past 52 weeks.
Shares of Alibaba were last seen trading at $ 76.00 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $91.68 and a 52-week trading range of $57.20 to $120.00.
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