Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) Stock Price Down 2.1% – What’s Next?

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) traded down 2.1% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $131.40 and last traded at $132.75. 5,566,554 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 19,043,919 shares. The stock had previously closed at $135.63.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BABA has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Alibaba Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Alibaba Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $104.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Arete Research upgraded Alibaba Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Alibaba Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $180.00 in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Alibaba Group from $130.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $148.14.

Alibaba Group Trading Down 2.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $314.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $121.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.58.

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The specialty retailer reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by ($0.07). Alibaba Group had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 12.89%. The company had revenue of $38.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.19 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alibaba Group Holding Limited will post 7.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Alibaba Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BABA. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans acquired a new position in Alibaba Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $321,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of Alibaba Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $287,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alibaba Group by 454.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,611,571 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $383,260,000 after buying an additional 2,959,954 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Alibaba Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $518,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in Alibaba Group by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 14,347 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,523,000 after buying an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.47% of the company’s stock.

Alibaba Group Company Profile

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands, retailers, and other businesses to engage with their users and customers in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company operates through seven segments: China Commerce, International Commerce, Local Consumer Services, Cainiao, Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others.