Alibaba joins Tencent in the exclusive US$500 billion market value club
Oppenheimer analysts, impressed by the company’s business plans, reiterate outperform rating on the stock with a price target of US$220
Shares of Alibaba briefly touched an all-time high of US$198.86 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares eventually closed 1.7 per cent higher at US$195.53, taking its market capitalisation to US$500.8 billion and making it the second Chinese tech firm to reach the milestone after Tencent on November 20.
The rise in shares came after New York-based investment bank Oppenheimer Holdings reiterated an outperform rating for Alibaba’s stock with a US$220 price target on Wednesday.
Analysts from Oppenheimer, led by Jason Helfstein, hailed the company’s initiative to connect online and offline businesses, saying it should “generate significant revenue for Alibaba’s retail business”.
Tencent is first Asian company to top US$500 billion in value, joining Apple and Facebook
They were also upbeat about Alibaba’s cloud business.
“In our view, growth will be fuelled by Alibaba’s improving personalisation in e-commerce through data-driven AI and media integration, continued adoption of Alibaba Cloud and greater physical store exposure,” the analysts said in the report.