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Alibaba (BABA) Registers a Bigger Fall Than the Market: Important Facts to Note

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Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $119.36, moving -2.28% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.3%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.46%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.38%.

The stock of online retailer has risen by 7.71% in the past month, leading the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.65% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.64%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Alibaba in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Alibaba to post earnings of $2.13 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 5.75%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $34.26 billion, reflecting a 2.37% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $8.58 per share and a revenue of $141.93 billion, indicating changes of -4.77% and +2.75%, respectively, from the former year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Alibaba should also be noted by investors. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

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 19.39% lower. Alibaba is holding a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now.

Looking at its valuation, Alibaba is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 14.24. This denotes a discount relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 22.39.

It's also important to note that BABA currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.64. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Internet - Commerce was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.68 at yesterday's closing price.

The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 89, placing it within the top 37% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.


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