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Activist investor Ryan Cohen has amassed a stake worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABY) and wants the company to make more share buybacks.
Cohen, president of GameStop (GME) and founder of online pet retailer Chewy (BLOW), accumulated participation in the second half of last year, according to a wsj report, who quoted well-known people. Cohen contacted Alibaba (slime) in August to express his belief that the Chinese e-commerce giant’s shares were severely undervalued.
Cohen has gained fame in recent years, especially for his involvement with GameStop, specifically among meme stock traders. News of Cohen’s stake in Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) in March originally sent his shares up 34% on March 6 and the revelation that he had exited his stake sent shares tumbling 41% on March 6. August 19.
Cohen, who wants to have a collaborative relationship with Alibaba (BABA), believes the company can achieve “double-digit” sales growth and nearly 20% growth in free cash flow in the next five years, according to the WSJ. Alibaba has a market capitalization of around $310 billion.
In November, Alibaba (BABA) announced that its board approved a plan to expand its equity program by another $15 billion to a total of $40 billion and extend the program to the end of fiscal 2025.
Cohen told Alibaba’s (BABA) board of directors that he could further increase his buyback plan by another $20 billion to a total of $60 billion, according to the WSJ report. Cohen, who also has a decent-sized stake in Apple (AAPL) as well as a stake in Netflix (NFLX), will have a net worth of around $2.5 billion, according to a wsj report of November
See also Seeking Alpha contributor Daniel Giron’s article from the previous Monday, titled “Why Alibaba is well positioned for continued success.”
