Alibaba's (BABA) Price Target Raised to $102 at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank maintained a Buy rating on Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and raised its price target to $102.00 (from $99.00). The change follows Q3 results. Analyst Alan Hellawell III noted monetization was very strong.
"Alibaba delivered Dec GMV growth of 23% YoY, 4% lower than DBe. Tmall GMV notably saw only 37% YoY growth (DBe +47% YoY.) Management blamed slower growth on warm weather, which it believes reversed in the first few weeks of the March quarter. We expect growth recovery in apparel (est 35% of GMV) this quarter from possible single-digit YoY growth levels last Q. GMV may have also missed on BABA’s growing focus on “high quality GMV”," said Hellawell.
"Company management encouragingly suggested a "de-coupling" between e-commerce growth and broader macro-economic trends. China retail sales growth in 2015 accelerated to 10.7% YoY, while e-commerce penetration rose from 10.6% in 2014 to 12.9% last year, this cast against a weakening in many macro-economic readings. We were pleasantly surprised with Alibaba's confident views around growth despite these more precarious times," added the analyst.
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Shares of Alibaba closed at $69.54 yesterday.