Alibaba (BABA) Results 'Strong', RBC Capital's Mahaney Says; PT to $110

RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney lowered his price target on Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) to $110.00 (from $115.00) following Q1 results but reiterated his Outperform rating citing "solid" results.

Keys for the quarter, according to Mahaney:

Positives: 1) Mobile – Mobile GMV of 304B RMB handily beat consensus expectations of 278B RMB while monetization showed substantial Y/Y improvement and came in at 1.73% (vs. Street’s 1.71%), leading to Mobile Revenue growing 352% Y/Y to 5.2B RMB. This marks the first quarter where Mobile (51%) contributed more to total GMV than Desktop; 2) Active Users – BABA continues to show strong Active Buyer growth with 350MM Active Buyers at the end of the March Quarter, growing a robust 37% Y/Y and increasing vs. 334MM in December. 3) New CEO – COO Daniel Zhang will take the reins from Jonathan Lu – we view this as a seamless transition.

Negatives: 1) Desktop Decline – Desktop GMV declined for the first time, decreasing 5% Y/Y despite a 14-pt easier comp (though this can in part be explained by the user shift to Mobile); 2) Stock Comp – SBC continues to rise, growing 27% Y/Y to 4.6B RMB in the March Quarter and accelerating from 16% Y/Y growth in the December Quarter.

The analyst commented, "With weak expectations going into the print, BABA results were strong, though maybe not exceptional. Growth largely decelerated at BABA despite easing comps, and we saw Desktop GMV decline for the first time. However, we saw clear traction on the Mobile side, which should continue in the coming quarters. We continue to believe the BABA Long Thesis is very much intact. BABA remains THE dominant Chinese ecommerce platform, with very robust & consistent Buyer & GMV growth rates (40%+), very high EBITDA margins (50%+), substantial FCF generation (almost $1B in the March Quarter alone), a very consistent management team & strategy, and significant option value in terms of non-retail revenue streams in China and International expansion."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Alibaba click here. For more ratings news on Alibaba click here.

Shares of Alibaba closed at $80.00 yesterday.

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