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Alibaba Group Holding Limited logo

Alibaba Group Holding Limited

BABAF
37
Specialty Retail · Consumer Cyclical
Price
$14.81
-0.12 (-0.77%)
Market Cap
$284.00B
Exchange
Other OTC
Winston Score
37
Winston is serious
Below-average fundamentals — multiple weak pillars.

Share count falling — buybacks

11.7% over 4y

The company has reduced its share count over this period, returning value to shareholders through buybacks.

Diluted shares outstanding: 21.79B (2022) → 19.23B (2026)

Alibaba is a Chinese technology and e-commerce company. It runs massive online shopping platforms — Taobao and Tmall — where hundreds of millions of consumers in China buy everything from clothing to electronics. It also operates Alibaba Cloud, one of Asia's largest cloud computing services, and owns logistics, payments, and wholesale trade businesses.

Alibaba makes money through advertising fees charged to merchants on its platforms, commissions on sales, cloud service subscriptions, and fees from its logistics and financial arms. It operates primarily in China but has international e-commerce operations through AliExpress and Lazada across Southeast Asia and Europe. Its moat comes from the sheer scale of its merchant and consumer network, which is difficult for competitors to replicate. The key risk is ongoing regulatory pressure from the Chinese government, which has already forced major restructuring of the business and continues to create uncertainty for investors.

Winston Score History

Politician Trades

6 trades / 12mo

4 Congressional buys and 2 sells on BABAF in the last 12 months.

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Growth Profile

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

+1.9% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Slow revenue growth

EPS Growth

-74.4% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Earnings declining

R&D Spend

$64.2B/ year

Rising (+12% vs prior year)

6.3% of revenue

1.6x the sector average (4%)

R&D investment increasing — building for the future

Insider Activity

8.0%ownership

Insiders own a meaningful stake in the company

Cash Runway

5+ years

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↓ Burn rate worsening

$1.0T cash & investments at current burn rate

Growth context

Alibaba Group Holding Limited is growing revenue at 2% year-over-year. The Winston Score measures business quality today — these growth metrics show what could matter tomorrow.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

Every number that matters to educated investors.

Each metric is explained in plain language so you know exactly what you're looking at. Start your free trial now.

Quality

Gross Margin
33.4%
Modest — 33.4% gross margin
Operating Margin
-0.4%
Losing money on operations — -0.4%
ROCE
-0.1%
Weak — -0.1% return on capital

Negative ROIC means the business is losing money on every dollar invested in it.

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Growth

Sales YoY
+2.0%
Nearly flat sales (2.0% YoY)
EPS YoY
-61.6%
Earnings shrinking (-61.6% YoY)

Earnings per share down more than 10%. Either a bad year, or a real decline.

EPS Consistency
2/8 quarters
Earnings rarely grow — volatile business

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Cash Flow

Cash Conversion
113%
Turns 113% of profit into real cash
FCF Margin
-9.2%
Burning cash (-9.2%)

Free cash flow is negative. They are burning cash, not generating it.

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Stability

Debt / Equity
0.25
Conservative — low debt load (0.25)
Interest Cover
5.26x
Adequate interest coverage (5.3x)

Interest coverage between 3 and 8. Profits cover interest several times over.

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Valuation

P/E Ratio (TTM)
1.7x
Attractive valuation — P/E 1.7

P/E under 10. The price tag is small relative to last year's profit.

P/E vs Forward
+0.3
GROWING
Earnings roughly flat

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Dividends

Dividend Yield
1.09%
Small dividend — 1.09% yield

Modest yield. The bulk of any return needs to come from price appreciation.

Dividend Growth
N/A
no trend
Data not available

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