alibaba group holding ltd’s shares looked to be giving back their postearnings gains in friday trading but analysts generally had praise for the chinese ecommerce giant’s latest results the company reported essentially flat revenue growth for its june quarter on thursday morning while signaling an improvement in business trends as the period wore on as well as progress in efforts to rein in expenses alibaba’s uslisted shares baba gained 18 in thursday’s session though they were off 42 in friday morning action and trading lower than they had been just prior to the report then again analysts were encouraged by what they saw from alibaba’s management team especially in the wake of a tough stretch for the company and the shares alibaba has been dogged by macroeconomic pressures on the chinese consumer geopolitical tensions as well as rising competition from livestreaming platforms shares have fallen 53 over the past 12 months as the kraneshares csi china internet etf kweb has lost 42 and as the sp 500 spx has dropped 6 “this is the first quarter in a while results are tracking inline and we feel the downward revision cycle appears to be approaching an end” mizuho’s james lee wrote in a note to clients he highlighted that while customer management revenue has been lagging gross merchandise volume given growing merchant expenses alibaba still beat expectations for earnings before interest taxes and appreciation in its china commerce business “disciplined spending drives outperforming profitability” lee continued while reiterating his buy rating and 160 price target on the stock he called alibaba “an attractive turnaround story in our coverage” “we view the solid revs beat and strongerthanexpected profit beat as a longwaited print which we believe could help to improve overall market sentiment on baba’s fundamentals and its continued effort to navigate through multiple challenges over the past 15 years” she wrote in a note to clients for yap a highlight was alibaba’s midsingledigit decline in paid gross merchandise volume at taobao and tmall a performance she thought was “ahead of many buyside and sellside expectations” as “many were expecting growth to be down midteens” on a yearoveryear basis “more importantly we view the china commerce adj ebita…as positive and a ‘needed surprise’ to reassure investors on the company’s cost optimization efforts and to help validate its profit generation ability” she continued yap rates the stock a buy with a 172 target price read inflation is leading to a ‘tale of two cities’ jefferies analyst thomas chong wrote that as alibaba is cutting costs its management team seems to be taking a thoughtful approach to the process “the pursuit of cost optimization and efficiencies is driven by strategic choice and judgment of macro environment rather than primarily financial consideration” he wrote “cost efficiencies apply to business units with different strategies amidst the uncertainties in macroenvironments” he has a buy rating and a 230 price target on alibaba’s uslisted shares