Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) Stock Price Declines 2.5% - What's Next?

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) experienced a decline in its share price of 2.5% during trading on Tuesday. The stock reached a low of $126.10 before settling at $127.51. In mid-day trading, around 11,785,296 shares changed hands, representing a decrease of 36% from the usual daily volume of 18,354,041 shares. The previous closing price stood at $130.81.

Analyst Ratings Shift

A recent review of BABA shares by several analysts has brought some noteworthy upgrades. Sanford C. Bernstein has raised its rating on Alibaba Group from "market perform" to "outperform" and increased the price target significantly from $104.00 to $165.00. Similarly, StockNews.com upgraded their stance from "hold" to "buy". Mizuho revised its price target from $92.00 to $113.00, maintaining an "outperform" rating. Benchmark increased its price objective for the stock from $118.00 to $190.00, also giving it a "buy" rating. Robert W. Baird raised its target price from $110.00 to $125.00 with an "outperform" recommendation. Currently, 15 equity research analysts have rated the stock as a buy and one as a strong buy, with MarketBeat indicating a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $144.07.

Price Performance Overview

Alibaba's stock price performance shows a 50-day simple moving average of $104.35 and a 200-day simple moving average at $96.30. The company's financial ratios are solid, with a current ratio of 1.48, a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, and a market capitalization of $332.16 billion. Its price-to-earnings ratio stands at 20.20 while the PEG ratio is at 0.61, indicating growth potential. On February 20, Alibaba announced its earnings, reporting $2.77 earnings per share (EPS), which was short of the analysts' expectations of $2.84 by $0.07. The company recorded revenue of $38.38 billion, slightly exceeding the predicted $38.19 billion. Analysts forecast the company to achieve 7.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors' Activities

In recent months, several hedge funds and institutional investors have made adjustments to their holdings in BABA. For instance, Sanders Capital LLC has increased its stake by 0.3%, now owning 18,460,434 shares valued at approximately $1.96 billion. Appaloosa LP has lifted its holdings by 18.4% during the fourth quarter, acquiring additional shares to reach 11,843,158 shares. Hhlr Advisors LTD raised its position by 64.1%, now holding 8,827,600 shares. Additionally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake worth about $585.48 million and Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Alibaba by 7.0%. Overall, institutional investors control roughly 13.47% of the company’s stock.Alibaba, stocks, investment