Mizuho Increases Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) Price Target to $170.00

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) had its target price raised by analysts at Mizuho from $140.00 to $170.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the specialty retailer’s stock. Mizuho’s price target points to a potential upside of 27.18% from the stock’s previous close.

BABA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Alibaba Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Alibaba Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Alibaba Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $104.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Alibaba Group from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price target on Alibaba Group from $118.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alibaba Group has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $148.14.

Alibaba Group Stock Performance

Shares of BABA opened at $133.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $317.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.32, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.28. Alibaba Group has a 12 month low of $68.36 and a 12 month high of $148.43. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $120.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $102.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The specialty retailer reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $38.19 billion. Research analysts forecast that Alibaba Group will post 7.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alibaba Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Appaloosa LP increased its position in Alibaba Group by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Appaloosa LP now owns 11,843,158 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,004,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,843,158 shares during the period. Hhlr Advisors LTD. grew its position in shares of Alibaba Group by 64.1% during the 3rd quarter. Hhlr Advisors LTD. now owns 8,827,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $936,785,000 after purchasing an additional 3,448,152 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alibaba Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $585,479,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Alibaba Group by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,676,773 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $566,124,000 after buying an additional 438,537 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alibaba Group by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,093,828 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $431,906,000 after buying an additional 78,757 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.47% of the company’s stock.

About Alibaba Group

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.