Brandes Investment Partners LP Acquires 32,233 Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)

Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) by 4.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 711,054 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 32,233 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Alibaba Group were worth $51,341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BABA. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in Alibaba Group by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 21,870,987 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,574,711,000 after acquiring an additional 1,074,175 shares during the period. FIL Ltd increased its holdings in Alibaba Group by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 10,630,701 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $823,986,000 after purchasing an additional 983,842 shares in the last quarter. H&H International Investment LLC lifted its stake in Alibaba Group by 63.1% in the fourth quarter. H&H International Investment LLC now owns 4,959,230 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $384,390,000 after buying an additional 1,918,730 shares during the period. ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Alibaba Group by 39.2% during the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 3,582,005 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $259,194,000 after buying an additional 1,009,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RWWM Inc. grew its position in shares of Alibaba Group by 36.8% during the 4th quarter. RWWM Inc. now owns 3,185,411 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $246,854,000 after buying an additional 857,093 shares during the period. 13.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BABA. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Alibaba Group from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Alibaba Group in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Loop Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Alibaba Group in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Alibaba Group from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $118.00 target price on shares of Alibaba Group in a report on Friday, August 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $107.61.

Alibaba Group Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of BABA opened at $107.33 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $272.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.33. Alibaba Group Holding Limited has a 1-year low of $66.63 and a 1-year high of $109.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.41. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.51.

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The specialty retailer reported $16.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $14.57. Alibaba Group had a return on equity of 12.08% and a net margin of 7.31%. The company had revenue of $243.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $248.32 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alibaba Group Holding Limited will post 7.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alibaba Group Profile

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands, retailers, and other businesses to engage with their users and customers in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company operates through seven segments: China Commerce, International Commerce, Local Consumer Services, Cainiao, Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others.