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Alibaba (BABA) Suffers a Larger Drop Than the General Market: Key Insights

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Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $72.32, moving -1.71% from the previous trading session. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.06% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.35%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.76%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the online retailer had lost 5.07% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.86% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.36% in that time.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Alibaba in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on February 7, 2024. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.73, down 2.15% from the prior-year quarter. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $37.21 billion, indicating a 3.6% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.86 per share and revenue of $132.6 billion, which would represent changes of +11.59% and +5.2%, respectively, from the prior year.

Furthermore, it would be beneficial for investors to monitor any recent shifts in analyst projections for Alibaba. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 3.47% decrease. As of now, Alibaba holds a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).

Digging into valuation, Alibaba currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.31. This denotes a discount relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 19.03.

The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 110, positioning it in the top 44% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.


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