Financial Comparison: Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) & Auto Trader Group (OTCMKTS:ATDRY)

Auto Trader Group (OTCMKTS:ATDRY) and Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Auto Trader Group has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alibaba Group has a beta of 0.19, meaning that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.0% of Auto Trader Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.5% of Alibaba Group shares are held by institutional investors. 12.5% of Alibaba Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Auto Trader Group and Alibaba Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Auto Trader Group	$766.77 million	9.14	$360.57 million	N/A	N/A
Alibaba Group	$1,012.06 billion	0.39	$17.93 billion	$7.24	22.69

Alibaba Group has higher revenue and earnings than Auto Trader Group.

Dividends

Auto Trader Group pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Alibaba Group pays an annual dividend of $0.95 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Alibaba Group pays out 13.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Auto Trader Group and Alibaba Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Auto Trader Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Alibaba Group	14.85%	13.04%	7.70%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Auto Trader Group and Alibaba Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Auto Trader Group	2	0	1	0	1.67
Alibaba Group	1	0	18	1	2.95

Alibaba Group has a consensus price target of $191.89, indicating a potential upside of 16.82%. Given Alibaba Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Alibaba Group is more favorable than Auto Trader Group.

Summary

Alibaba Group beats Auto Trader Group on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Auto Trader Group

Auto Trader Group plc operates in the digital automotive marketplace in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company provides vehicle advertisement on its websites for private sellers, as well as insurance and loan financing products to consumers; and display advertising on its websites for manufacturers and their advertising agencies. The company offers its products to retailers, home traders, and logistics firms. Auto Trader Group plc was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Manchester, the United Kingdom.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands, retailers, and other businesses to engage with their users and customers in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company operates through seven segments: China Commerce, International Commerce, Local Consumer Services, Cainiao, Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others. It operates Taobao, a digital retail platform; Tmall, a third-party online and mobile commerce platform; Alimama, a monetization platform; 1688.com and Alibaba.com, which are online wholesale marketplaces; AliExpress, a retail marketplace; Lazada, Trendyol, and Daraz that are e-commerce platforms; Freshippo, a retail platform for groceries and fresh goods; and Tmall Global, an import e-commerce platform. The company also operates Cainiao Network logistic services platform; Ele.me, an on-demand delivery and local services platform; Koubei, a restaurant and local services guide platform; and Fliggy, an online travel platform. In addition, it offers pay-for-performance, in-feed, and display marketing services; and Taobao Ad Network and Exchange, a real-time online bidding marketing exchange. Further, the company provides elastic computing, storage, network, security, database, big data, and IoT services; and hardware, software license, software installation, and application development and maintenance services. Additionally, it operates Youku, an online video platform; Quark, a platform for information search, storage, and consumption; Alibaba Pictures and other content platforms that provide online videos, films, live events, news feeds, literature, music, and others; Amap, a mobile digital map, navigation, and real-time traffic information app; DingTalk, a business efficiency mobile app; and Tmall Genie smart speaker. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.