Alibaba loses its 'strong buy' rating at Raymond James amid concerns about e-commerce growth

Raymond James expert Aaron Kessler inactive likes shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA, -1.84%, though he's becoming a spot much cautious connected the name. Kessler lowered his standing connected the banal by a notch Friday, downgrading it to outperform from beardown bargain and reducing his terms people to $240 from $300. "While we stay affirmative connected Alibaba semipermanent and judge valuation remains attractive...we judge the betterment successful shares could instrumentality longer fixed the caller slowing of e-commerce maturation combined with continued regulatory actions crossed China," helium wrote. Kessler argued that factors similar "intermittent lockdowns" amid the pandemic and supply-chain issues could negatively interaction e-commerce maturation successful China. "While immoderate of these are transitory, we judge these factors are weighing connected user retail maturation near-term and determination is accrued uncertainty successful presumption of a maturation recovery," helium wrote. Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares are disconnected 0.9% successful premarket trading Friday. They've mislaid 33% implicit the past 3 months portion the S&P 500 SPX, +0.03% has fallen 0.3%.