JD
Barclays just lifted the hood
Barclays decided JD.com deserves a bigger shine, raising its price target to $41 from $34 and sticking with an Overweight rating. The catalyst? Better-than-expected demand trends across JD’s major businesses, which is analyst-speak for “the shopping cart looks a little fuller than we thought.”
Why investors should care
The firm also nudged up its first-quarter revenue estimates and sees growth starting to re-accelerate across the board. In particular, Barclays thinks home appliance and electronics revenue could turn positive as early as the third quarter, while losses from food delivery keep shrinking — the kind of combo that can make a stock chart stop looking like a ski slope.
Not the only opinion on the street
JD is getting a bit of a Wall Street tug-of-war. Macquarie reportedly upgraded the stock to Outperform with a $35 target, while Deutsche Bank trimmed its target to $36 but kept a Buy rating. Translation: analysts disagree on how fast the comeback happens, but most still think the story is better than the stock price suggests.
Big picture
JD also completed a CNY10 billion offshore notes offering, which tells you the company is still actively managing its balance sheet while trying to fund the next leg of growth. If demand keeps improving and the margin story cooperates, this could be one of those “boring business, surprisingly interesting stock” situations.