Alibaba's Position In E-Commerce, Cloud Stronger Than Feared By Wall Street, Says Analyst

Alibaba Group Holding BABA’s position in e-commerce and cloud markets after it paid up a record $2.8 billion antitrust fine is better-than-feared, according to KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The Alibaba Analyst: KeyBanc analyst Hans Chung maintained the “Overweight” rating on the stock on Tuesday but lowered the price target to $270 from $275.

The Alibaba Thesis: Despite lower expectations, Chung says Alibaba’s market position remains strong among peers in the aftermath of the anti-monopoly crackdown in China. 

As per the analyst, with a higher average revenue per user and membership adoption, Alibaba's business-to-consumer online retail platform Tmall has boosted its market position in the mid-to-high end of the online retail market.

See Also: Alibaba Sees Vendor Signups For '6.18' Shopping Festival On Tmall Double: What You Need To Know

On Alicloud, which is turning into a bigger source of revenue, Chung said the unit continues to see strong momentum in the enterprise and the public sector. The analyst said Alibaba management's tone indicates better landscape dynamics than feared by Wall Street.

Keybanc said the lower price target stems from expectations of lower revenue and operating profit for Alibaba in F1Q22 due to slower growth in gross merchandise value.
Why It Matters: The world’s largest e-commerce company in terms of gross merchandise volume had last year found itself under intense regulatory scrutiny after Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma’s criticism of China's regulatory system.

The e-commerce giant had to shelve the planned blockbuster IPO for its financial affiliate Ant Group.

The cloud unit is Alibaba’s second-biggest revenue driver after its core e-commerce business. In 2020, Alibaba’s cloud business, at the third spot, generated $6.12 billion in revenue, behind Amazon.com Inc AMZN and Microsoft Corp MSFT. 

See Also: Amazon Remains Dominant Player In Cloud, But It's Losing Grip To Rivals

Price Action: BABA shares closed 2.82% lower on Tuesday and traded 0.47% higher in the pre-market session Wednesday at $212.60.

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Photo: Courtesy of Alibaba