Latest news with #Qwen2.5-Max
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba Stock Soared 56% in Q1 While the Nasdaq Plunged 10%. Here's Why.
Given the stock's poor performance since its pandemic-prompted peak in late 2020, it would have been easy to give up on China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA). And plenty of investors did. Yet in outright defiance of the Nasdaq Composite's (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) 10% tumble during the first quarter -- its worst quarter since the bear market of early 2022 -- Alibaba shares rallied to the tune of 56% during Q1 this year. Don't look for a single specific reason Alibaba's stock has done so well so far this year. You won't find it. Rather, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Several different complementary factors are converging here. One of these factors is the return of Jack Ma. Although the Alibaba co-founder isn't stepping back into a leadership role with the company, early last year he stepped out of the shadows and back into the spotlight to make an impassioned plea to Alibaba's employees to pull the organization out of its funk. And he's remained there ever since, keeping this ticker primed for a bullish response to any good news. And good news came in January's announcement from Alibaba's artificial intelligence (AI) arm that the latest version of its AI technology platform (called Qwen 2.5-Max) was even better than DeepSeek-V3, which stood the artificial intelligence on its ear just a month earlier. Shortly thereafter, Apple announced it would be integrating Alibaba's AI tech into its iPhones used in China, securing another high-profile win for the company. Then in late February Alibaba reported solid results for the fiscal quarter ending in December. Top-line growth of 8% (led by the cloud intelligence segment, but also with respectable growth from its e-commerce arm) led the company to revenue and earnings that both topped analysts' expectations. Although the stock's subsequent response was a bit hit-and-miss, shares eventually reached yet another multiyear high in the middle of March. All told, thanks to investors' new eagerness to embrace good news, as of the end of last month Alibaba shares were 56% above where they ended calendar 2024. Things have cooled off a bit in the meantime. In addition to a bit of profit-taking, investors are understandably concerned about the toll that newly imposed tariffs could take on Alibaba's business. And it's a legitimate concern to be sure. The bullish argument here is still better than the bearish one though, if only because so much of Alibaba's business is done within China, while another sizable chunk of it is at least done within its global region. Recently enacted tariffs could possibly even help. Underscoring this bullish argument is the fact that the vast majority of analysts still rate Alibaba stock as a strong buy despite all the recent geopolitical drama. Before you buy stock in Alibaba Group, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Alibaba Group wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $461,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $578,035!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 730% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 147% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 5, 2025 James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Alibaba Stock Soared 56% in Q1 While the Nasdaq Plunged 10%. Here's Why. was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Have $500 to Invest? 3 Absurdly Cheap Stocks Long-Term Investors Should Buy Right Now
With the market pulling back, it's time to go bargain-hunting and find some cheap stocks. It's a good reminder that markets will go up and down, but stocks tend to outperform over the long run. Let's look at three cheap stocks investors can start to dip their toes in and buy now with a small investment. I own all three. While Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) hasn't been suffering in this market sell-off, the Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing giant is still one of the cheapest stocks around. The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of less than 15 times 2025 analyst estimates, while it also has a boatload of cash and investments on its balance sheet as well. Meanwhile, the advances it has been making with artificial intelligence (AI) models have caught the attention of investors. The company has extolled the performance of its foundational AI model, Qwen 2.5-Max, which it uses as the basis for a number of specialized open-source AI models centered around language, audio, vision, coding, and mathematics. Last quarter, the company's cloud intelligence group grew its revenue by 13% to $4.3 billion, and its AI-related revenue surged by a triple-digit percentage for the sixth straight quarter. Meanwhile, the company has been letting low-margin project-based contracts roll off, which helped lift the cloud intelligence group's adjusted EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization) by 33% to $430 million. At the same time, the company has started to see a meaningful turnaround in its e-commerce businesses, Tmall and Taobao. Taobao permits both businesses and consumers to sell on its platform, while Tmall is solely a business-to-consumer marketplace for established brands. Investments the company has made to grow its gross merchandise value (the total value of goods sold on its platforms) along with increasing use of its new AI marketing tool, Quanzhantui, and a new software service fee it implemented helped improve its results last quarter. Overall, the segment's revenue rose 5%, while revenues from its third-party business climbed by 9%. Overall, Alibaba is a cheap stock that is gaining momentum. The past year has been a difficult one for e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE: ELF) -- its shares have been cut by close to two-thirds as of this writing. However, this has left the stock in bargain territory, trading at a forward P/E of 23 times and a price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 0.5. Typically, stocks with positive PEG ratios under 1 are viewed as undervalued. E.l.f. saw its shares tumble last month after it lowered its quarterly revenue growth forecast to only 1% to 2%, citing poor industry trends and the potentially disruptive impacts of a TikTok ban. The company markets heavily through influencers, so TikTok almost being banned in the U.S. in January had an impact. However, this is still a company that in the past few years has grown swiftly in the mass-merchant cosmetics space and taken a ton of market share away from competitors. At the same time, it has large opportunities in front of it. E.l.f has moved into the skincare market, which is growing nicely, but it can still expand into adjacent categories such as fragrance. It has also been making nice strides internationally. It's also worth noting that the cosmetic industry tends to do pretty well during recessions, as reflected in a phenomenon known as the lipstick index. While not 100% accurate all of the time, it is an observation that female consumers tend to be willing to spend more on small luxuries, such as cosmetics, when budgets are tight. The company is also expected to see shelf space gains at retailers later this year, including at important retail partner Target. All in all, this is a great time to scoop up shares of a leading company while they're down. Down about 20% over the past year, shares of Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) are on the clearance rack, trading at a forward P/E of under 8. While the company's namesake brand has performed well, thanks in part to international growth, it has run into trouble with the HeyDudes brand that it acquired in early 2022. Turning around HeyDudes could be a big opportunity for the company, and it saw some progress on that front in the fourth quarter, when it reported flat sales for the brand year over year. The company is leaning into marketing and celebrity endorsers to push the brand. It is also targeting the young female demographic, a strategy that led to 160% growth in new female customers ages 18 to 24 during the quarter. While new HeyDudes products are selling well, the company still needs to continue to clear out older HeyDude inventory in its wholesale channel and return to full-price selling, but it finally made some good progress in that last quarter after some pretty big sales declines in prior periods. The Crocs brand, meanwhile, is expected to continue to be driven by international expansion, innovation, and its sandal business. Crocs continues to produce a ton of cash, including $923.2 million in free cash flow in 2024, so it has a lot of financial flexibility to pay down debt, buy back its undervalued shares, and invest in growth initiatives. It's a cheap stock to buy in this market. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $282,016!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $41,869!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $482,720!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of March 10, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alibaba Group, Crocs, and e.l.f. Beauty. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Target and e.l.f. Beauty. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group and Crocs. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Have $500 to Invest? 3 Absurdly Cheap Stocks Long-Term Investors Should Buy Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba Shares Jump on AI Gains as Momentum Continues. Is It Too Late to Buy the Stock?
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) shares got a nice boost following the Chinese company's fiscal third-quarter results, which showed a nice rebound in its e-commerce business as well as strong artificial intelligence (AI) growth. The stock has had a tough past five years, losing about a third of its value, but it has been rallying lately. The stock is now up about 70% year to date and has nearly doubled over the past year as of this writing. Let's take a closer look at Alibaba's most recent earnings to see if the stock's rally can continue. Alibaba's largest business remains its e-commerce segment, which consists of leading Chinese e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao. Tmall is China's premier e-commerce marketplace where established brands sell their merchandise, while Taobao is a platform used by both individuals and businesses to sell merchandise. The company's e-commerce business has been under pressure the past few years from heavy competition, especially from PDD's Pinduoduo platform, as well as a weak Chinese consumer economy. However, the segment posted solid 5% growth in its fiscal third quarter (ended in December) to $18.6 billion, including 9% growth in its important third-party business. Alibaba credited the growth to higher gross merchandise value (GMV), which is the total value of goods sold through its platforms, and a high take rate (the fees charged by the platforms themselves). Management also noted that it was seeing more uptake of its new AI marketing tool Quanzhantui, and that it benefited from the new software service fee it implemented. Its segment earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA) rose 2% to $8.4 billion. The company said it is also seeing solid customer growth. This included double-digit growth for its 88VIP premium memberships, which reached 49 million at the quarter's end. Its cloud intelligence group, or cloud computing segment, saw revenue jump 13% to $4.3 billion. AI-related revenue soared by triple digits for the sixth straight quarter. The segment's adjusted EBITA, meanwhile, climbed 33% to $430 million. The company touted its foundational AI model Qwen 2.5-Max, noting its industry-leading performance. Alibaba said it will invest aggressively in AI infrastructure, with plans to spend more in the next three years than it has over the last decade. It said its goal is to achieve AGI (artificial general intelligence), where AI can attain 80% of human capabilities. The company's other businesses also generally showed strong revenue growth, led by a 32% increase to $5.2 billion from its international commerce segment (AIDC). These emerging businesses continue to scale up but are currently largely unprofitable. However, management is looking for AIDC to turn in its first profitable quarter within the next fiscal year. That would be a big improvement from the $678 million EBITA loss it reported in the fiscal third quarter. Overall, Alibaba's revenue rose 8% to $38.4 billion. Adjusted earnings per American depositary share climbed 13% to $2.93, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization rose 4% to $7.5 billion. Free cash flow came in at $5.3 billion. Alibaba ended the quarter with $54.8 billion in cash and short-term investments and $31.7 billion in debt. It also had $47.4 billion in equity and other investments on its balance sheet. Alibaba has invested heavily to help turn around its e-commerce businesses, and this quarter bore the fruit of those efforts. Its GMV had been improving, but this quarter, it was able to take that GMV growth and translate it into solid increases in revenue and EBITA. Its Quanzhantui marketing tool appears to be gaining traction, while there was no detrimental impact from the small technology service charge it introduced. The company also continues to be an AI leader in China. It recently won a deal with Apple to provide the AI behind Apple Intelligence in China, while it continues to see solid growth in its cloud computing unit. Meanwhile, it is still benefiting from a profitability standpoint as low-margin contracts expire. And the Chinese government appears to be fully behind the country's tech companies in the AI race. Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who had been persona non grata after criticizing China's financial sector in 2020, was recently photographed with other business leaders meeting with China's president, Xi Jinping. The Chinese government has had its differences with the tech sector in the past, but Xi has encouraged these companies to innovate and grow. That's all good news for a company like Alibaba. Looking at valuation, Alibaba stock remains cheap, trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) under 15 for fiscal 2026 analyst estimates and a price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) under 0.4, with PEGs below 1 usually view as undervalued. With the stock still inexpensive and a turnaround taking hold, Alibaba remains an attractive investment. The company is becoming a Chinese AI leader, which should help lift its valuation multiple, while flipping its AIDC business to profitability should also be a nice lift to earnings. Before you buy stock in Alibaba Group, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Alibaba Group wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $804,553!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 904% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of February 24, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alibaba Group. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Alibaba Shares Jump on AI Gains as Momentum Continues. Is It Too Late to Buy the Stock? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Globe and Mail
19-02-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
This AI Stock Is Up 50% in 2025. Is It Too Late to Buy?
The artificial intelligence (AI) euphoria-driven rally in U.S. stocks has more or less stalled and investors have been instead questioning Big Tech companies' burgeoning AI capex as we saw during Q4 earnings calls. However, there are signs of the AI rally moving to China ever since DeepSeek revealed that its AI model performed better than AI models from the likes of Meta Platforms (META) and OpenAI. While China's prowess in manufacturing is well-known, DeepSeek claims to have developed its AI model at a fraction of the cost. Amid the rally in Chinese tech shares, Alibaba (BABA) stands out with its almost 50% year-to-date gain. In this article, we'll examine whether Alibaba is a buy or a sell now after the mammoth rally. But first, let's look at the factors that have driven BABA stock higher. Why Is Alibaba Stock Going Up To begin with, Chinese stocks are back on the radar of foreign investors amid hopes that the country's economic stimulus measures will help revive the world's second-largest economy. Markets expect the country to announce more stimulus measures as it prepares to hold the 'two sessions' – the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Conference – in March. Talking specifically of Alibaba, it has rallied amid the broad-based tech rally in China after the DeepSeek revelation. Alibaba announced that its Qwen 2.5-Max AI model performed better than not only DeepSeek-V3, but also OpenAI's GPT-4o, on several benchmarks. Secondly, Apple (AAPL) has partnered with BABA which would help bring AI to iPhones in China. While the move would help Apple finally offer its flagship 'Apple Intelligence' in the world's second most populous country where it lost its position as the biggest smartphone company last year, it was also a testimony to Alibaba's AI prowess. Finally, Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting with Chinese entrepreneurs including Alibaba's co-founder Jack Ma further spurred the rally in BABA shares. Ma and Alibaba became the face of China's tech crackdown, so the meeting was quite an about-turn for the country's political leadership. BABA to Release Its Earnings Meanwhile, Alibaba is set to release earnings for its fiscal Q3 2025 on Feb. 20. Analysts expect the company's revenues to rise 7.4% year-over-year to $32.8 billion while its adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are expected to rise 2.8% in the quarter. Analysts rate Alibaba as a 'Strong Buy' but the stock has run ahead of its mean target price of $120.47 during the recent rally. I would however expect brokerages to raise BABA's target price following its earnings. Should You Buy or Sell Alibaba Stock? Alibaba's valuations — or, for that matter, all Chinese tech stocks — took a beating after the country's tech crackdown in 2021. Making things worse was the structural slowdown in its economy, and U.S.-China trade tensions. Fast-forward to 2025, and while the trade war between the world's two largest economies might worsen before they eventually reach some sort of deal, China has been addressing the other two issues. The stimulus is expected to support the Chinese economy and by meeting private entrepreneurs, the Chinese president has signaled that the crackdown on private tech companies is now in the rearview. Alibaba has seen a valuation rerating and now trades at just about 14x its expected earnings over the next 12 months. While that multiple is still below what U.S.-based peers like Amazon (AMZN) trade at, it is significantly higher than the single-digit multiples that BABA traded at last year. I believe the valuation disconnect between U.S. and Chinese tech companies is here to stay. First, China faces structural issues like high debt and an aging economy. Second, tensions between China and the Western world look here to stay, which could deter many investors from considering Chinese stocks. Overall, while BABA's valuations still don't look demanding, I took some profits off the table here. I would however be willing to add to my position if the stock comes off these levels as I believe that BABA is a long-term business restructuring story as it tries to unlock value by listing its different business segments.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba Cloud's Growth Accelerates With AI, Analyst Weighs DeepSeek's Rising Competition
Goldman Sachs analyst Ronald Keung maintained a Buy on Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) with a price target of $117. Keung noted Alibaba's Qwen2.5 family continues to gain traction in Huggingface's latest Open LLM Leaderboard. The analyst noted that Alibaba's recent share price outperformance versus the sector (since its Qwen2.5 model launches) has been potentially due to the leading benchmark performances of its latest Qwen2.5-Max. Apple's AI Split: Chooses Alibaba For China And OpenAI For Everyone Else Investor focus is likely on the value of Alibaba Cloud as China's largest cloud hyperscaler, where he valued Alibaba Cloud at 3 times revenue versus Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services at 7 times revenue. The analyst expects a sequentially stronger core domestic eCommerce performance, which the appliance trade-in program will help, a software service fee boost, and continued acceleration in cloud revenue growth. With Alibaba's upcoming December quarter results, Keung forecasted group revenue growth of 7% and Alibaba Cloud revenue growth, which he expects to accelerate to 10% for the December 2024 quarter and 12% for the March 2025 quarter (from 7% in the September 2024 quarter). The analyst expects an acceleration of cloud revenue growth across China cloud service providers (CSPs) in 2025E on increased revenue contribution from the margin-accretive generative AI-driven business. Keung noted the continued progress of open-source models at competitive performance and costs versus closed-source, with the increasing availability of open-source models supported by global cloud service providers. He noted increasingly agile Chinese models and significant improvement in computing cost efficiencies could drive further room for broader adoption, exploration, the proliferation of AI applications, and potential for global expansion for Chinese players, assuming Chinese companies can continue to tap computing power and chips. However, Keung flagged a rise in competition between capital-rich internet giants versus affordable start-ups like Deep Seek in the model layer, given lowering barriers to entry, an ongoing shift from training to more inferencing, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainties. Yet Keung remained positive on long-term AI computing demand growth as further lowering of training and inference costs could drive higher AI adoption. Price Action: BABA stock is up 1.99% at $113.53 at the last check on Tuesday. Also Read:Photo courtesy: Shutterstock Date Firm Action From To Feb 2022 Barclays Maintains Overweight Feb 2022 Stifel Maintains Buy Feb 2022 Citigroup Maintains Buy View More Analyst Ratings for BABA View the Latest Analyst Ratings UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? ALIBABA GR HLDGS (BABA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Alibaba Cloud's Growth Accelerates With AI, Analyst Weighs DeepSeek's Rising Competition originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
