Alibaba looks undervalued at a 52-week low, with a $229B market cap against expected 2027 operating income of $90B and double-digit growth anticipated for the next few years. x.com
Gublo
Small/Mid-Cap Trader, Multibagger/Penny Stocks, Earnings Analysis & Signals
Alibaba should be taken seriously within the next three months, trading at just 10 times 2028 earnings. x.com x.com
Alibaba's market cap is only about 10x the next 12 months' sales of its cloud business, so the e-commerce behemoth comes for free. The cloud business now has a $24 billion revenue run rate, growing 38% year over year and still accelerating, and it is early days in China. A post the author replies to counters that Alibaba Cloud's margins are only 3-5% versus AWS's 30%, but Google Cloud's margins three to four years ago versus today show how that can change. x.com x.com
Alibaba's $10.2 billion Hong Kong share placement shows its cash burn has caught up with it, and more dilution is likely. Core China ecommerce makes roughly $30 billion of flat EBIT, half of it reinvested in quick commerce to defend share against PDD. Cloud and AI earns $2 billion of EBIT growing 35% but burns about $10 billion a year in AI-model opex. Pro forma EBIT of about $7 billion collapses after $20-25 billion of annual capex, so Alibaba will keep tapping equity markets. x.com
Alibaba at $110 is one of the most mispriced mega-caps because investors effectively get its AI and cloud business for free. The company is worth about $270B and holds around $70B in cash and liquid investments, while core e-commerce generated almost $5.9B of adjusted EBITA in one quarter, roughly $230B annualized at just 10x. AI and cloud may be Alibaba's most valuable part five years from now. x.com
Alibaba remains undervalued because its accelerating cloud business can carry the stock while other segments lag. Cloud revenue growth sped up to 45%, a strong acceleration on a higher base, and AI revenue posted a 12th straight quarter of triple-digit growth. Total revenue rose only 9%, margins were very low and China commerce keeps disappointing. Modeling $100B of cloud revenue in five years, fair value is $182 and the one-year target is $203, with a lower exit multiple reflecting China risk. … Show more
Alibaba is not a cheap Amazon, and cheap can stay cheap for a long time. It trades at 2015 prices, while since 2015 Amazon has gone from $34 to $250, Alphabet from $39 to $344 and QQQ from $100 to about $770, eleven years of missed compounding. Chinese companies should not be assumed to follow the playbook of American tech giants, just as Tencent is not Alphabet and BYD is not Tesla. x.com
Alibaba offers opportunity at $123 as a front-runner in China's AI buildout, particularly if its AI spending shows real returns and it proves it can compete with the US. Over $56 billion of AI and cloud investment over three years has made current free cash flow negative, like US hyperscalers. Cloud growth is expected near 45%, AI products are already 30% of external cloud revenue, and it holds $38 billion of net cash. Cloud growth, capex and guidance will drive the earnings reaction. x.com
Alibaba is a contrarian trade because accelerating demand for relatively cheaper compute is very underappreciated, and China's cloud market is still in its infancy versus the US. Alibaba is a consensus short as upside from closed-source AI looks illusory. x.com x.com
Alibaba is no longer worth owning when better opportunities exist. The case for it as a China hedge was a macro feeling applied to a single company, and it ignored Jack Ma being yanked away and a lack of cloud growth while leaning on share buybacks and looking too cheap to ignore. Despite its discount to US companies, other stocks, such as GitLab and Airbnb, now look much more compelling. x.com
Alibaba and JD.com have grown far beyond what their flat share prices reflect. Alibaba trades near its 2016 price of about $108 while annual revenue rose from $15.7B to $148.4B, almost 10x. JD.com is back at its 2019 price of about $26.5 while revenue grew from $67.2B to $187.2B, nearly 3x. With both charts finally starting to improve, 100%+ upside is absolutely on the table. x.com