
Does Recent Massive Purchase Of Alibaba Stock By Insiders Suggest Strong Earnings Ahead?
The e-commerce giant has seen its stock struggle in recent times, but do huge recent stock grabs by their founders suggest something is afoot?
Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) is one of the largest in its field in the world. Similar to Amazon, it boasts more than 300,000 inquiries per day. Unfortunately, it’s had a rough past year, with its stock falling about 33% over the past 12 months. However, recent massive purchases by some of their top CEOs on the eve of the 2023 Q4 earnings suggest that possibly the company is about to unleash some good news.
Founded in 1999, Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. Although regular rocky Chinese-American geo-political relations.have impacted the stock’s performance, it remains a successful and prominent business that attracts the attention of many investors. Their e-commerce dealins are enhanced by fitech, entertainment and other ventures, much like Amazon.
The annual revenue for Alibaba is breathtaking, having earned $109.48 billion, $134.56 billion and $126.49 billion annually from 2021–2023. The company has a market cap of $174 billion. However, the stock has staggered during that time, going from more than $237 per share on February 1, 2021 to the current $74.61
The next earnings for Alibaba is right around the corner on February 7th. Anything can happen, but recent massive stock buys by top insider executives suggest that they may be encouraged by the results about to be revealed.
Co-founders Joe Tsai and Jack Ma have sunk huge amounts of money into buying their company’s stock in recent months, indicating a strong conviction on their part about its future. This isn’t just picking up some extra shares, as the pair has bought more than $200 million worth of Baba stock since the fourth quarter of 2023.
CNBC’s Rohan Goswami reported that Blue Pool, an entity controlled by Tsai’s family, snatched up almost two million shares worth $152 million late last year. Around the same time, Ma acquired $50 million to add to his own portfolio.
Currently, analysts seem to love Alibaba stock. TipRanks has catalogued 20 analysis reports, with 18 of them considering it a Buy and the other two a Hold. None of them recommend selling. Their average 12-month price target is $118.20, which if realized would be a 58% jump from the current price. Of all of these predictions, the high came in at $150, while the lowest was $85, which would still be a nice move up from the present.
Company owners and insiders buying up shares is not a foolproof way to determine if a business is going to do well in the future or provide positive results. However, such instances can be interesting ways to guess which direction the wind is blowing. It’s hard to imagine the Alibaba co-founders acquiring such a volume of shares if they didn’t have confidence in positive results moving forward. However, the proof will be in the pudding when the next earnings are announced this week and investors will get a chance to see exactly where this behemoth company is headed.
