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Alibaba (BABA) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $123.98, moving -1.99% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.81% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.47%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.51%.

Heading into today, shares of the online retailer had lost 7.94% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 2.51% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.84% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Alibaba as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Alibaba to post earnings of $2.41 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 28.7%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $37.85 billion, up 11.7% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.96 per share and revenue of $132.85 billion, which would represent changes of -19.92% and +24.06%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Alibaba. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 5.93% lower. Alibaba is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).

Looking at its valuation, Alibaba is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 15.9. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 32.17, so we one might conclude that Alibaba is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that BABA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.69. 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. BABA's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.61 as of yesterday's close.

The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 222, which puts it in the bottom 13% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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