Goldman predicts Alibaba shares will rally more than 50 percent in one year

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Chinese online retail giant Alibaba CEO Jack Ma (C) waves as he arrives at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on September 19, 2014.

Alibaba will thrive as it dominates new markets in China, according to Goldman Sachs.

The firm reiterated its buy and conviction list ratings for Alibaba shares, predicting strong growth in the cloud computing and financial businesses for the company.

“We remain impressed with Alibaba’s overall leverage to China consumption growth given its strategy, positioning, ability to build new businesses (such as new retail) and its execution,” analyst Piyush Mubayi said in a note to clients Wednesday. “We expect Alibaba to continue to invest for future growth on multiple fronts.”

Alibaba shares are up 1.8 percent in Wednesday’s premarket session.

Mubayi raised his 12-month price target to $247 from $241, representing 54 percent upside to Tuesday’s close.

The analyst said Alibaba’s cloud business market share in China rose to 46 percent in 2017 from 30 percent in 2015. He said the company’s financial segment called Ant Financial now has 640 million customers using at least two of its services.

“In our view, the continuous investment in cloud technology demonstrates Alibaba’s determination to solidify its leading position in the industry and take up more market share in the future,” he said. “We believe Ant Financial will continue to be the ‘enabler’ of Alibaba’s New Retail strategy and help the company navigate the globalization road map.”

— CNBC’s
Michael Bloom
contributed to this story.