Everything The Street Has Said About Alibaba Recently

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA reports Q1 results Thursday and traders are awaiting the news.

After its September 2014 IPO, the stock climbed to over $119 in November only to decline in the following months. Since its IPO, the stock has fallen approximately 15 percent and recently traded at $79.94.

Ahead of the earnings news, Morgan Stanley addressed recent comments from the company’s chairman, Jack Ma.

Wall Street analysts have discussed on the stock's prospects and were largely bullish. Below are highlights along with current ratings and price targets.

Summit Research - Buy, $97 price target

“We are positive on the eCommerce market in China and Alibaba’s favorable position in this rapidly growing market. Longer term for Alibaba, we expect to see strong top-line growth, driven by continuing market share gains, further penetration in lower tier cities, and stable margin trends, driven by improving take rates and operating leverage. We consider Alibaba a company with a rare combination of massive scale, strong growth and high margin in the global internet space.”

Related Link: What To Know Ahead Of Alibaba's Huge Earnings Announcement

Deutsche Bank - Buy, $98 price target

“We have had several opportunities to meet with Alibaba mgmt over the past few weeks. While some proactive measures across the platforms could limit upside surprise shorter term, mgmt continues to evince a confident longer-term view; suggesting that mobile, category expansion and other factors will fuel growth going forward. Combined platform GMV should still meet or exceed market expectations of USD400b by CY15 and USD500bn by CY16. We tweak down earnings est. marginally to reflect NT headwinds while maintaining BUY on a still-intact broader thesis.”

MKM Partners - Buy, $125 price target

“The lockup of 437 million shares [on March 18] has also been an overhang. One-hundred million of those shares are owned by employees and are subject to trading restrictions until 1Q15 earnings are announced in mid-May. That leaves 337 million, or 14%, of outstanding shares available for sale. Given Rob's view that BABA remains a secular winner and with the stock now trading around 22x his 2016 non-GAAP EPS estimate, a 48% discountto his $125 12-month price target, any weakness due to the share lockup should prove to be an opportunity to add long directional exposure.”

SunTrust - Buy, $110 price target

“While we acknowledge the long-term opportunity and prudent decisions around SEM and SEO, we also note the likely negative impact is greater than our original estimates in the short term. Further, the loss of high-margin lottery sales will have an negative impact. Lastly, investments in platform quality as well as growth will continue to pressure margins - particularly in seasonally weak periods[...]We are not alone in this realization and suspect that consensus numbers may continue to drift lower in the coming days/weeks. However, we believe buyside expectations are largely discounting this move.”