Baird Analyst Previews Alibaba Investor Day

Baird analyst Colin Sebastian previewed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA's Investor Day, set to take place on Tuesday.

"We believe this event could be an important milestone for the company, as it seeks to reassure shareholders that the underlying business remains vibrant, despite recent negative headlines. Overall, we remain constructive on shares," according to Sebastian.

The analyst offered 10 wish list/expectations for the event:

• "Financial guidance (revenues expected), longer-term cash-flow/margin profile (wish-list);
• Greater transparency around profitability of the core marketplace segment vs. other (generally loss-making) businesses;
• Capital allocation and investment requirements for core and non-core business segments (both cap-ex and op-ex);
• Aliyun/Cloud platform growth strategy, including IaaS and "up the stack" in PaaS and SaaS;
• Synergies and growth strategy for Media/Entertainment assets following billions of USD in acquisitions/investments;
• Global and cross-border opportunities, in particular India, SE Asia and other emerging markets; ambitions in Western markets?
• AliPay/Ant Financial investment and relationship ahead of and beyond the pending IPO;
• Logistics/fulfillment strategy and investments (primarily Cainiao and local grocery/food delivery) in both rural and urban/suburban markets;
• SEC investigation and any plans to modify accounting policies or simplify ownership structure;
• Other long-term strategic bets and overall strategic and financial investment philosophy."

Sebastian maintained an Outperform rating and $94 price target on shares of Alibaba.