Alibaba (BABA) Stock Moves -1.66%: What You Should Know

Alibaba (BABA) closed the most recent trading day at $116.76, moving -1.66% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 2.01% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.56%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.2%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the online retailer had gained 27.11% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 1.09% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.08% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Alibaba as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Alibaba is projected to report earnings of $1.70 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 33.85%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $31.38 billion, down 1.53% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.24 per share and revenue of $139.02 billion. These totals would mark changes of -12.88% and +4.32%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Alibaba. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Alibaba is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Alibaba has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.4 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.2.

Meanwhile, BABA's PEG ratio is currently 1.74. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Internet - Commerce stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.22 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 189, which puts it in the bottom 26% 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.

To follow BABA in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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