Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Stock Target Boosted For Strong Q4 Earnings

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Alibaba stock has been heading onward and upward on the back of strong earnings results on Tuesday. At least three firms have boosted their price targets for the Chinese online retailer after it beat earnings estimates. Mobile is becoming a greater and greater factor in Alibaba’s sales, and analysts are liking it.

Alibaba stock price target to $100 at Wedbush

Wedbush analyst Aaron Turner bumped his price target for Alibaba stock up to $100 from $90 per share but wasn’t moved enough by Tuesday’s earnings report to upgrade it from Neutral. He feels that Alibaba stock is capped by the slowing Chinese economy, at least for now, despite its position as a global leader in e-commerce.

He does feel that the company is driving user engagement through successful leveraging of its digital media investments. He said the company is using that data to boost monetization rates, and he expects Alibaba to eventually leverage that data to drive its omni-channel commerce as well.

The online retailer boosted its full-year sales growth outlook for fiscal 2017, but he said that this suggests that the fourth quarter revenue will be lower than expected. Alibaba now projects 53% year over year growth rather than the 48% it expected before. Turner said this increase doesn’t fully account for the better-than-expected third fiscal quarter, which implies that the fourth quarter won’t be as strong as expected.

Alibaba stock target to $131 at Goldman, $125 at HSBC

Goldman Sachs analyst Piyush Mubayi and team raised their price target for Alibaba stock from $101 to $131 per share. They also boosted their revenue estimates for fiscal 2017 to 2019 by 3% to 4% on a “better growth outlook for China online advertising and International retail.” They maintained their Buy rating on Alibaba stock as well, retaining it on their “Conviction List.”

HSBC analysts also raised their price target on Alibaba stock, bumping it up to $125 from $120 per share. In their earnings coverage, they highlighted the company’s strategy of boosting mobile traffic and user engagement by leveraging its data. They feel this strategy is working, holding a similar view to what Wedbush’s Turner said in his note. The HSBC team also weighed in on the Intime Retail acquisition. They don’t expect any more brick-and-mortar acquisitions and feel that there are synergies in inventory management, targeting of customers, and retention.

Shares of Alibaba stock rose by as much as 2.59% to $104.06 during regular trading hours on Wednesday. The online retailer added about $8 billion to its market value following the December quarter earnings release.

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