Macquarie: Raise Alibaba-W (09988) target price to HK$176.3 to reaffirm “buy” rating

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Macquarie released a research report saying that Alibaba-W (09988)'s fourth fiscal quarter performance is expected to be steady until the end of March this year, and the core business is expected to improve quarterly. The Group's cloud business growth accelerated again, but it was not fully reflected in the valuation. In response to the performance of various business segments, the adjusted EBITA forecast for FY2025 was lowered by 1%, the “buy” rating was reiterated, and the target price was raised to HK$176.3.

According to the bank, with improvements in advertising technology, the commercialization ratio is expected to continue to rise. Driven by marketing solutions such as “full-site promotion” and additional merchant service fees last year, customer management revenue (CMR) growth is expected to reach about 10% in the last quarter, which is higher than the 5% growth rate of the platform's total commodity transaction volume (GMV). Adjusted EBITA is expected to reach RMB 33.6 billion, or 13.7% year-on-year increase.