This past Tuesday morning, Eastern Standard Time, Alibaba’s stock hit a 52-week low of $146.73 per share. That figure had risen only marginally by the time trading closed at 4pm.
The Chinese tech titan, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has seen a significant drop in share value since its high point earlier this year. The going rate of $211.70 also marked a record for the company. In just a few months, however, that price has dropped over 30%.
The latest figures also represent a 19% decline from the beginning of this year, when Alibaba was trading at $183.65 a share.
Alibaba is far from the only Chinese tech company suffering from a sagging stock price. Just two days ago, soon after announcing a large-scale company restructure, Tencent shares hit a 15-month low. Both companies’ dips in value are likely symptoms of China’s slowing economy as well as escalating trade tensions with the US, which are hitting supply chain-dependent tech companies especially hard.
In addition, on September 10 Alibaba’s patron saint-cum-founder Jack Ma announced that he would step down from his position of company chairman in a year, although he’d likely keep a stake in the company. The news triggered a small fall in Alibaba’s value, to $157. (Ma, however, topped this year’s Hurun’s China Rich List anyway.)
But despite the apparent downturn in fortune, US analysts remain fairly positive about Alibaba’s future. Morgan Stanley lowered its price target for the company to $220 but maintained a “hold” rating on BABA stock. Similarly, Goldman Sachs kept its “buy” rating for Alibaba, and even raised its price target by $6, to $247.
And at least one Goldman Sachs analyst maintains that he’s pretty optimistic about a change in fortunes for Alibaba, citing factors such as the company’s cloud services, food-delivery business, and Ant Financial, currently valued at $150 billion.