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Stock

Alibaba Group Holding Limited

BABA
46
Specialty Retail · Consumer Cyclical
Also trades as: BABAF USD 13.79 (-4.80%)
Price
$109.11
-2.02 (-1.82%)
Market Cap
$271.44B
Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
Winston Score
46
Winston is serious
Mixed quality — meaningful strengths and weaknesses.
Data as of Oct 18, 2026 · filings through Jun 30, 2026

§How the score breaks down

Quality
Mixed
9/30
Growth
Mixed
7/20
Cash Flow
Good
5/10
Stability
Strong
8/10
Valuation
Strong
7/10
Ownership
Good
8/15
Dividends
Mixed
2/5

46 of 100 counted points = Winston Score 46.

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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: 2.72B (2022) → 2.40B (2026)

§Winston Score History

The full picture

Alibaba is a giant Chinese technology and e-commerce company. It runs online shopping platforms — Taobao and Tmall — where hundreds of millions of consumers in China buy everything from clothes to electronics. It also operates Alibaba.com, a wholesale marketplace connecting businesses around the world with suppliers, mostly in China.

Alibaba makes money through advertising fees and commissions charged to merchants on its platforms, plus fees from its cloud computing division, Alibaba Cloud, which is the largest cloud provider in China. The company operates primarily in China but has international commerce and cloud businesses expanding across Southeast Asia and beyond, with annual revenue exceeding $130 billion. Its main competitive advantage is the sheer scale of its merchant and buyer network, which is difficult for rivals to replicate. The biggest risk the company faces is ongoing regulatory pressure from the Chinese government, which has already forced major structural changes to the business and continues to create uncertainty for investors.

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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

+8.3% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Slow revenue growth

EPS Growth

-76.0% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Earnings declining

R&D Spend

¥66.5B/ year

↑ Rising (+16% vs prior year)

6.5% of revenue

1.6x the sector average (4%)

R&D investment increasing — building for the future

Insider Activity

7.8%ownership

→ Flat

Insider ownership roughly steady over the past year

Cash Runway

5+ years

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↓ Burn rate worsening

¥974.9B cash & investments at current burn rate

Growth context

Alibaba Group Holding Limited is growing revenue at 8% 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

Profit per sale
Gross Margin
38.0%
Modest — 38.0% gross margin
Profit after running costs
Operating Margin
7.2%
Modest — 7.2% operating margin
Return on the money invested
ROCE
3.3%
Weak — 3.3% return on capital

ROIC between 0% and 5%. They earn a few cents back per dollar invested in the business.

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Growth

Sales growth
Sales YoY
+4.3%
Slow sales growth (+4.3% YoY)
Profit growth
EPS YoY
-50.7%
Earnings shrinking (-50.7% YoY)

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

How steady the profit is
EPS Consistency
5/8 quarters
Mixed — about half the quarters showed growth

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Cash Flow

Profit that turns into cash
Cash Conversion
103%
Turns 103% of profit into real cash
Spare cash per sale
FCF Margin
-4.8%
Burning cash (-4.8%)

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

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Stability

What it owes vs what it owns
Debt / Equity
0.25
Conservative — low debt load (0.25)
Covers its interest
Interest Cover
4.55x
Adequate interest coverage (4.5x)

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

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Valuation

Price vs profit
P/E Ratio (TTM)
23.9x
Growth-priced — P/E 23.9

P/E above the market average. People are paying up for expected growth.

Cheaper or dearer next year
P/E vs Forward
+14.3
GROWING
Earnings expected to grow meaningfully — cheaper on forward P/E (23.9 → 9.6)

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Dividends

Dividend
Dividend Yield
3.89%
Moderate income — 3.89% yield

Standard yield zone for stable dividend payers. A meaningful piece of total return.

Dividend record
Dividend Growth
N/A
Data not available

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