I’ve spent a good amount of time researching this one - would be the first foreign owned IPO I will have ever invested in.
Limit orders start today I believe, priced at $68/share. Highest pre-market valuation of any IPO in history. Any thoughts either way?
No thoughts on the IPO specifically, but I recall a thread or two in the main forum a few years ago with people wondering if it was a legit e-retailer. Looks like Amazon has some competition.
The only thing I would worry about is the convoluted structure of the company. You are actually buying stock in the holding company and not Alibaba due to Chinese law.
I can see the temptation. It could be the new ‘Google’ - huge IPO, seemingly overvalued, but the potential upside is so great that it just keeps climbing.
And like Google vs Yahoo/MSN/Ask/AltaVista/etc., it seems to be better positioned (and run) then its competitors. Alibaba is already much larger than either eBay or Amazon both in revenue and client base, it has much greater potential in yet-untapped local market, it has a better on-line community, and its simply more profitable.
The opaque nature of Chinese business is a concern, as is potential Chinese Gov’t interference but the potential upside is HUGE.
This place pops up all the time when I do searches for odd things. I was looking for a bunch of stainless things a while back, large tanks, large pots, stainless material sheets etc etc and they had really good prices on everything they had. I just had ZERO faith in getting what was in the picture and described. I also thought it looked more “Industrial” bent then consumer bent. Many places had large order limits, 10+ etc and showing discounts for 1000+.
It looked a lot like an industrial bent amazon.
Just had not heard of anyone ever using them. If the shipping is reasonable I suspect that a company like that will be the final nail for Western manufacturing.
~Matt
I think the question for me is when to buy. I think it is going to shoot straight up, but there are $8B worth of shares or something like that that can be sold immediately. I’ve seen where there are multiple funds placing billion dollar orders for this. When the insiders cash in, it may provide a short window for a buying opportunity. Usually you get the initial pop and then retrace a bit on these IPO’s and that’s when to buy, but if you plan to hold for 5-10 years, it probably doesn’t matter.
I’ve spent a good amount of time researching this one - would be the first foreign owned IPO I will have ever invested in.
Limit orders start today I believe, priced at $68/share. Highest pre-market valuation of any IPO in history. Any thoughts either way?
My thoughts are: what’s your hurry? $68 is cheap but so is $250 if the company is as good as hyped. I’ll sit and watch this one. It CAN go to zero, too.
but there are $8B worth of shares or something like that that can be sold immediately.
This ^^^ The rules this IPO is operating under are different, at best. I also wonder why it’s offered on NYSE and not Shanghai?
Plus it’s looking to open at over $90. Should it be valued at more then Pfizer or Verizon?
I would also say that I do have concern that you are not truly owning Alibaba with BABA, but a holding company. From China.
What does the company do?
I’m thinking about buying BABA as a long term investment in an IRA I have that has a lot of my “play stocks.”.
I’ve spent a good amount of time researching this one - would be the first foreign owned IPO I will have ever invested in.
Limit orders start today I believe, priced at $68/share. Highest pre-market valuation of any IPO in history. Any thoughts either way?
My thoughts are: what’s your hurry? $68 is cheap but so is $250 if the company is as good as hyped. I’ll sit and watch this one. It CAN go to zero, too.
I think we should start a company called “The Viceroy”, which is all based upon one item, the Tulip. We should be able to get that $250 based upon hype…don’t ya’ think?
I’ve spent a good amount of time researching this one - would be the first foreign owned IPO I will have ever invested in.
Limit orders start today I believe, priced at $68/share. Highest pre-market valuation of any IPO in history. Any thoughts either way?
My thoughts are: what’s your hurry? $68 is cheap but so is $250 if the company is as good as hyped. I’ll sit and watch this one. It CAN go to zero, too.
I think we should start a company called “The Viceroy”, which is all based upon one item, the Tulip. We should be able to get that $250 based upon hype…don’t ya’ think?
It’s appropriately listed as BABA. Watch how the sheep follow…
I’m thinking about buying BABA as a long term investment in an IRA I have that has a lot of my “play stocks.”
I sure wouldn’t put a stock in a IRA that has a real potential to be a big loss.
I bought it at 90.50 today, then sold it for 92.50. I think i will get back in next week if it goes down into the 80’s. The company does a lot of things. They are kind of like ebay, paypal, and amazon all rolled into one, only in a market that has 600 million internet users. The company is one of the most valuable in the world now, but they do make billions in profits, something amazon is yet to do. They are more of a go between and don’t have the huge costs that amazon does. They grew 45% this year, and are expected to grow double digits for many years to come.
In comparison, they are still valued less in the earnings metric than Facebook, ebay, and certainly amazon. Even twitter is no where near them. They had to do some hinky offshore deal to even be sold on the NYSE, and shareholders have no say in how the company is run. But i see that as a positive, you are betting on Ma, the guy that basically took several 1000’s of dollars not that long ago, and now has turned them into 260 billion or so. He seems to know what he is doing, so not having to answer to the Icahns of the world is probably best for this company.
Lots of things could go wrong of course, China’s economy tanks, they do not get their foothold in the US market, etc… , but things look really good right now for this company. Next time i get in, i will get in big for a long term hold in my retirement account… Just wanted to take some profit on day one and see where it goes from here first…
The holding company is not a concern at all for me. You have to because of the way its structured. I’m in next week for the long haul too.
I would have to see them becoming more user friendly and legit before I would put some money on them.
But if they can clean up the shipping, gray market aspect of some of their products it could be an interesting buy.
You’re assuming that everything in the financial statements and everything that they have submitted is correct and true. Chinese companies have zero track record of that being the case. Not to mention analysts have read through the financial statement and have said the company is too complicated to actually understand. It very well may do good, but there are more risks than upside potential, and of all the undervalued stocks that are still out there. This doesn’t even break the top 10 of ones I would invest in and if thats the case there is very little point.
Rich getting richer. Real money was made (at least in terms of almost no risk) by people who had the opportunity to buy the IPO at $68 and then sell at $90. 40% return in one day for doing nothing other than being rich and/or connected enough to be able to get IPO shares. I agree the stock has a lot more promise than Amazon or Ebay, but at $93 a share I don’t think it is such a good deal.
I bought it at 90.50 today, then sold it for 92.50.
Closed at just under $94. Looks like you left half your profit on the table.