Monday, September 14, 2015

Pacific Crest Reduced Estimates On Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Stock


Pacific Crest reduced its target price from $94 to $80 on Alibaba stock in light of the ongoing uncertainty in China

On Tuesday, Pacific Crest reduced its target price to $80 from $94 while reiterate an Overweight rating on stock of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The sell side firm provided the reason that the continuous economic slump in China has adversely affected its confidence in the company’s growth in the short term.
Analysts at Pacific Crest said that the company is affected by decreasing customer spending in the country, according to Alibaba stock analysis. They pointed out that the management has highlighted that it will witness a mid-single digit influence to gross merchandise volume from declining spending power in the country. However, the e-commerce giant believes that the macroeconomic ambiguity is caused by the negative spending gush instead of lower spending.
Keeping in mind the slowdown in the economy, the Chinese company slashed its 2016 and 2017 gross merchandise volume forecasts and doesn’t see a recovery in its estimates at least for now. Moreover, it also highlighted that currency deflation in majority of countries has caused in foreign exchange headwinds for the company’s online marketplace, AliExpressAlibaba expects a less double digit year over year growth for the online platform in the upcoming quarter, as reported according to Alibaba stock news.
The sell side firm has also slashed its forecasts on AliExpress because of the continuing volatility in International markets and impending for more emerging currency market changes. Pacific Crest also said that though the company lowers revenues in the coming period, it upheld its fiscal year 16 gross margin guidance. The firm thinks that this step reflects some resistance around level of spending, in spite of revenue failings in Alibaba’s main e-commerce industry.
Despite of upcoming macroeconomic headwinds and volatility, Pacific Crest is still positive on e-commerce giant in the long-term. The firm’s bull case on the company stands at $102 price target while in case of bear the price target $50.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. stock has declined 38.8% so far this year because of increasing concerns like sell of fake and counterfeit products that took place on its online Taobao and Tmall platform. Other than that, smaller competitors like JD.Com Inc. have been ramping up their game in the industry. JD. Com revenue went up by 61% in its second quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings compared to that of Alibaba’s 29% in the previous quarter. Vipshop Holdings Ltd. reported 75% of revenue growth in its second quarter financial results. It looks like soaring competition might also impact Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume in the upcoming term.
As per the analysts covering Baba stock, 45 gave it a Buy, 5 suggest a Hold and 2 recommend a Sell. The twelve month mean price target is $95.5.
Alibaba stock was up 5.19% to $64.07 at market close on Wednesday September 10.

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