Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Grows Stock Position in Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,855 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Alibaba Group were worth $2,616,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Appaloosa LP raised its position in shares of Alibaba Group by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Appaloosa LP now owns 11,843,158 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,004,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,843,158 shares during the last quarter. Hhlr Advisors LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Alibaba Group by 64.1% in the third quarter. Hhlr Advisors LTD. now owns 8,827,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $936,785,000 after acquiring an additional 3,448,152 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alibaba Group in the fourth quarter valued at $585,479,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alibaba Group by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,093,828 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $431,906,000 after acquiring an additional 78,757 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in Alibaba Group by 454.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,611,571 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $383,260,000 after purchasing an additional 2,959,954 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.47% of the company’s stock.

Alibaba Group Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of BABA opened at $132.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Alibaba Group Holding Limited has a 12 month low of $68.36 and a 12 month high of $148.43. The stock has a market cap of $314.80 billion, a PE ratio of 19.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.28. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $121.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $102.58.

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The specialty retailer reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $38.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.19 billion. Alibaba Group had a return on equity of 12.89% and a net margin of 12.29%. Equities analysts forecast that Alibaba Group Holding Limited will post 7.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Arete Research raised shares of Alibaba Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Alibaba Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $104.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. StockNews.com lowered Alibaba Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alibaba Group from $125.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Benchmark raised their price target on Alibaba Group from $118.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $148.14.

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.