Alibaba (BABA) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Alibaba (BABA) closed at $181.83 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.48% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.37% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.25%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.34%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the online retailer had gained 7.48% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.66% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.83% in that time.

BABA will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.07, up 17.58% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $13.50 billion, up 36.7% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.42 per share and revenue of $55.31 billion, which would represent changes of +3.44% and +44.33%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for BABA. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. BABA is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that BABA has a Forward P/E ratio of 33.37 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 27.33, which means BABA is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that BABA has a PEG ratio of 1.19. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Internet - Commerce stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.09 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 176, which puts it in the bottom 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within 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 follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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