At the end of a good week on the stock market JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) The price of its U.S.-listed American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) rose nearly 9% on Friday. The major Chinese e-retailer was still riding the glow of a strong second quarter, whose results were announced on Thursday morning, and an upgrade in its rating gave the stock a real boost on the last trading day of the week.
Support from a major US bank
An ever-influential bank JPMorgan Chase was the authority behind JD’s upgrade. Before the market opened, analyst Andre Chang rated the stock as overweight (read: buy), one notch higher than his previous neutral rating. Chang also raised his price target – it is now $36 per share, up from $33.
The upgrade follows a detailed review of quarterly results, which, among other positive developments, revealed net profit that almost doubled year-on-year.
In his recent research note on JD, Chang expressed his delight at the fact that “management has changed its strategy to focus on its strengths rather than pursuing low prices at all costs.” This emphasis on higher margins prompted the analyst to raise his forecasts for annual non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) adjusted net income for both 2024 and 2025. The two estimates are now nearly 30% above the consensus forecast as published in Bloomberg, Chang added.
Other experts were not so positive
The upgrade by JPMorgan Chase was one of several adjustments made by analysts who track JD.com stock. Interestingly, not all of these adjustments were positive, although the second quarter was clearly a strong one for the company. Analysts at Benchmark and Bernstein SocGen Group both lowered their price targets on the company’s shares. Robin Zhu of the latter wrote that JD.com more or less met expectations, which included a “slight overachievement” on core profitability and reduced expectations on revenue growth.
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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Eric Volkman does not own any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns and recommends JD.com and JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Why JD.com shares rose nearly 9% on Friday was originally published by The Motley Fool.
