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Alibaba (BABA) Outperforms Broader Market: What You Need to Know

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The most recent trading session ended with Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) standing at $81.68, reflecting a +1.42% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.12%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.52%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 0.23%.

The online retailer's stock has dropped by 6.41% in the past month, falling short of the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 4.43% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.45%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Alibaba in its forthcoming earnings report. In that report, analysts expect Alibaba to post earnings of $3.06 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 14.61%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $38.46 billion, showing a 4.88% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $8.78 per share and revenue of $137.85 billion. These totals would mark changes of +1.86% and +5.63%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Alibaba should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 6.22% lower. Alibaba currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

From a valuation perspective, Alibaba is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.18. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 20.64 for its industry.

It is also worth noting that BABA currently has a PEG ratio of 0.38. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Internet - Commerce industry held an average PEG ratio of 1.18.

The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 141, placing it within the bottom 44% of over 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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