Monthly Archives: July 2021

Yahoo Sports is previewing all 32 teams as we get ready for the NFL season, counting down the teams one per weekday in reverse order of our initial 2021 power rankings. No. 1 will be revealed on Aug. 4, the day before the Hall of Fame Game.

(Yahoo Sports graphics by Amber Matsumoto)

The first night of the NFL draft was a whirlwind for the Denver Broncos.

Aaron Rodgers wanted to be traded. Denver was on his reported short list of preferred teams. Former Broncos guard and Denver radio host Mark Schlereth reported that a deal was about as close to a done deal as can happen.

Then it never happened and the Broncos were stuck in a holding pattern.

Since Peyton Manning retired after the 2015 season, the Broncos have tried everything at quarterback. Nothing has worked. And with the season getting closer, the Broncos have two realistic options for opening day: Rodgers, the reigning MVP and perhaps the most talented QB ever, or the combination of Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater. No pressure to get a deal done or anything.

The Broncos faced a decision with the ninth pick that was curious at the time and could be a really bad choice as the years ago by. Justin Fields was on the board, as was Mac Jones. but the Broncos chose cornerback Patrick Surtain II. The most obvious guess is it was to keep the door open for Rodgers, which is clearly risky.

Broncos general manager George Paton said Surtain was too good to pass.

"The board just kind of fell where Surtain was there and we couldn't pass him up," Paton said, according to the team's site. "He was just too talented, too unique, too good off the field, too good on the field."

Surtain might be great. But if you're a team that has had Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco and Lock on the quarterback carousel since Manning retired, you don't pass on Fields or Jones if you like them for a cornerback. Maybe the Broncos simply didn't like either prospect. Or, maybe they are hoping for Rodgers.

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The Rodgers possibility is one of the most interesting still on the board this offseason because the Broncos could be very good with him. Denver's defense isn't what it was in their most recent championship season, but it's still good. The offensive line has improved. The Broncos have done a very good job drafting skill-position talent. If you look at the Broncos' depth chart and cover up the quarterback position, you'd be pretty impressed.

But you can't do that in the NFL. Lock had a 75.4 quarterback rating last season and led the NFL in interceptions. He has a long way to go to be a viable NFL starter. The Broncos traded for Bridgewater, who is a great story and a fun player to root for but probably not a top-end starter. The Carolina Panthers took just a fifth-round pick for Bridgewater, will play $7 million of his $10 million salary and are relying on Sam Darnold to replace him. What does that tell you about Bridgewater's stock?

That's why the stakes are high with the Packers' game of chicken with Rodgers. There has been no indication the Packers will trade him and no indication Rodgers is going to play for them. Anything is possible, but it seems the Broncos are the only real trade partner left if Green Bay does make a move. The Broncos are Super Bowl contenders if they add Rodgers and maybe a double-digit loss team without him.

The second-biggest question is, how long can Broncos fans hold their breath?

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Let's start with this: If Aaron Rodgers comes to Denver, the grade is an A+. But that hasn't happened and the Packers have said it won't, so we'll judge what they have done. Defensive backs Kyle Fuller and Ronald Darby were nice additions. Being able to retain Von Miller there were questions if he'd be back was another positive move. Right tackle Ja'Wuan James was cut after an attention-getting offseason injury, running back Phillip Lindsay moved on and cornerback A.J. Bouye is gone too, but overall it was a solid offseason. That assumes Denver finds some answer at right tackle (perhaps its late addition Bobby Massie). Trading for Teddy Bridgewater was fine, standing pat at QB in part because they had Bridgewater was not. The draft is hard to judge. Surtain is very likely to be a blue-chip player. But if Justin Fields or Mac Jones become good starters and Denver doesn't get Rodgers, it's a pick that will be second-guessed for a long time.

Grade: B

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Assuming a certain MVP isn't traded, the Broncos seem to have an open mind when it comes to who will start between Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock.

"Its totally 50-50," coach Vic Fangio said, according to the team's transcript. "Maybe Ill flip a coin to see who takes the absolute first snap of the offseason and training camp."

Fangio said he'll withhold judgment until training camp and preseason games. Perhaps Lock has the slight advantage because he might still have some untapped upside. There have been games in which Lock looked pretty good, and he has just 18 career starts. If Bridgewater gets the job, it's because the Broncos prefer the steadiness he'll bring. Bridgewater can manage games and a good supporting cast can win games with him the 2019 New Orleans Saints went 5-0 in his starts and maybe that's all the Broncos feel they need. It's not an exciting quarterback competition, but it's a crucial one in Denver.

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The Broncos' win total at BetMGM is 8.5. If you still think Denver will get Aaron Rodgers, that's a very easy over. The fact that the line is 8.5 indicates BetMGM is lukewarm on the possibility of a trade happening, though they're mindful of it. The Broncos opened the offseason at 7.5 wins. I'll take under 8.5. I don't think Aaron Rodgers is coming and I don't trust the quarterbacks the Broncos would rely on without him. I'll take the under with the understanding that a Rodgers trade likely makes that ticket an instant loser.

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From Yahoo's Scott Pianowski: "I could spent half a day writing a love letter to the Broncos pass catchers, but often times our missives here are about who not to draft. And I'm not going to draft Melvin Gordon this summer, unless the price is a giveaway.

"Gordon enters his age-28 season, his seventh as a pro. He's not only on the back nine of the career, he's getting near the final hole. He's become a nothing receiver (last year he averaged 4.9 a catch and 3.6 a target, both paltry numbers), and Denver's new decision makers aren't tied to Gordon. The team traded up to draft rookie running back Javonte Williams always a move we need to strongly consider and added free agent back Mike Boone.

Bottom line, Gordon is the type of player I'd rather be a year early on than a year late on. His career arc makes me nervous. I don't think he'll be this team's featured back for the majority of the year."

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Here are the Broncos' NFL ranks in points scored each season since Peyton Manning retired: 22, 27, 24, 28, 28. That's a long stretch of bad offensive football. We've talked a lot about the quarterbacks, so let's focus on the rest of the offense. The skill-position talent is capable of way more than ranking near the bottom of the NFL in points. Courtland Sutton returns from an ACL tear and if he's healthy, he's a legitimate No. 1 receiver. Jerry Jeudy dropped too many passes last season, but the 2020 first-round pick had moments where he looked good. Tight end Noah Fant is one of the few big-time playmakers at his position in the NFL. The Broncos traded up in the draft and likely stole talented running back Javonte Williams from the Miami Dolphins in the second round; Williams is likely to have a nice role with Melvin Gordon still around as well. The offensive line is on more solid footing too since left tackle Garett Bolles turned a corner last season. It's not a great line but it isn't a liability either. OK, now you're allowed to wonder what Aaron Rodgers could do with that type of talent around him.

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When the Broncos drafted Chubb fifth overall in 2018, Denver envisioned a dominant pass-rush duo with him and Miller terrorizing quarterbacks for years. Both reached double-digit sacks in 2018. Then Chubb tore his ACL in 2019, and Miller missed all of 2020 with an ankle injury. Chubb made a Pro Bowl last season and looked fully recovered from his knee injury. There were questions if Miller would return, but in the end the Broncos picked up his $17.5 million base salary. Miller is 32 and one has to wonder if his status as a franchise icon played into the decision to still pay him as one of the best defenders in the NFL. If Miller can regain his elite form and Chubb looks even better another year removed from ACL surgery, the Broncos will have that menacing pass-rush duo. Miller, who is a likely Hall of Famer, carries the more uncertainty of the two.

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(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

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"Not landing Aaron Rodgers" isn't really the nightmare, though it will feel like it to Broncos fans who got their hopes up on draft night. Rodgers being traded still seems like a bit of a pipe dream. We'll see. Let's assume that doesn't happen. The Broncos could conceivably compete with Teddy Bridgewater or Drew Lock. The talent is there. The problem is if Lock and Bridgewater play to the level they did last season, and neither helps a team that went 5-11 last season. That means another lost season with a pretty good roster, and another long, excruciating offseason listening to Broncos quarterback speculation.

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I don't think Aaron Rodgers is coming to Denver, or going anywhere other than Green Bay. The Packers have shown no signs they're going to move him. Then the next move will be up to Rodgers. But that's a longer discussion for a future preview. If Rodgers doesn't land with the Broncos, it's hard to figure them out. Denver can be on the fringe of playoff contention, but with Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater they are likely the third-place team in the division at best. This is a good roster but it has a quarterback problem. It feels like that's been the theme of the Broncos' team preview for six straight offseasons. Unless the Broncos pull off an all-timer of a trade, next year will probably mark the seventh straight offseason preview in which we wonder how they'll finally replace Peyton Manning.

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32. Houston Texans 31. Detroit Lions 30. Jacksonville Jaguars 29. New York Jets 28. Cincinnati Bengals 27. Philadelphia Eagles 26. Carolina Panthers 25. Atlanta Falcons 24. Las Vegas Raiders 23. New York Giants22. Chicago Bears

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2021 NFL Preview: Yes, the Broncos' ranking will change if they land Aaron Rodgers - Yahoo Sports

WAKEFIELD, Mass. (AP) An hourslong standoff with a group of heavily armed men that partially shut down Interstate 95 ended Saturday with 11 suspects in custody, Massachusetts state police said.

The standoff shut down a portion of I-95 for much of the morning, causing major traffic problems during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Authorities said the interstate is now reopened and the shelter-in-place orders for Wakefield and Reading were lifted.

The standoff began around 2 a.m. when police noticed two cars pulled over on I-95 with hazard lights on after they had apparently run out of fuel, authorities said at a Saturday press briefing.

At least some of the suspects were clad in military-style gear with long guns and pistols, Mass State Police Col. Christopher Mason said. He added that they were headed to Maine from Rhode Island for training.

You can imagine 11 armed individuals standing with long guns slung on an interstate highway at 2 in the morning certainly raises concerns and is not consistent with the firearms laws that we have in Massachusetts, Mason said.

In a video posted to social media Saturday morning, a man who did not give his name, but said he was from a group called Rise of the Moors, broadcast from Interstate 95 in Wakefield near exit 57.

We are not antigovernment. We are not anti-police, we are not sovereign citizens, were not Black identity extremists, said the man who appeared to be wearing military-style equipment. As specified multiple times to the police that we are abiding by the peaceful journey laws of the United States.

The website for the group says they are Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.

Mason said he understood the suspects, who did not have firearms licenses, have a different perspective on the law.

I appreciate that perspective, he said I disagree with that perspective at the end of the day, but I recognize that its there.

Mason said he had no knowledge of the group, but it was not unusual for the state police to encounter people who have sovereign citizen ideology, although he did not know if the people involved in the Wakefield standoff was a part of that.

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The men refused to put down their weapons or comply with authorities orders, claiming to be from a group that does not recognize our laws before taking off into a wooded area, police said.

Mason said the suspects surrendered after police tactical teams used armored vehicles to tighten the perimeter around them.

Police initially reported nine suspects were taken into custody, but two more were taken into custody in their vehicle later Saturday morning. Two suspects were hospitalized, but police said it was for preexisting conditions that had nothing to do with the standoff.

Police and prosecutors are working to determine what charges the members of the group will face.

The suspects were expected to appear in court in Woburn on Tuesday, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.

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11 people in custody after hourslong armed standoff on I-95 - Yahoo News

Levi Strauss (LEVI) says it's seeing a new type of U.S. consumer coming out of the other side of the pandemic one with a much different waistline than when the pandemic began more than a year ago.

And that is helping to spur strong sales of looser fitting Levi's jeans (which are higher priced) among other key styles, explained Levi's CFO Harmit Singh on Yahoo Finance Live.

In reality, the lack of mobility caused by the pandemic has caused most consumers to gain a lot of weight making the pants in their closet unusable for their return to post-COVID life. About 42% of people polled in a recent survey from the American Psychological Association said they gained more weight than they intended during the pandemic. Of those surveyed, the average weight gain has tallied 29 pounds. Roughly 10% of those surveyed said they gained more than 50 pounds.

Levi's has seen a swift lift in business as a result of the need to rebuild closets.

HONG KONG, CHINA - 2021/06/22: American clothing company brand, Levis store and logo in Hong Kong. (Photo by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The retailer said Thursday evening that second quarter sales surged 148% from a year ago, benefiting from strong demand and easy comparisons to store closures last year. Sales rose by triple-digit percentages in Levi's three regions of business: Americas, Europe, and Asia. Docker's sales gained an impressive 100% from last year.

Strength was seen in both men's and female bottoms.

Here is how Levi's performed compared with Wall Street estimates on its earnings day Thursday evening:

Net Sales: $1.28 billion vs. $1.21 billion

Diluted EPS: 23 cents vs. 9 cents a share

Second Half 2021 Outlook: Sales up 28% to 29% and adjusted earnings of 72 cents to 76 cents.

Levi's shares rose 3% to $27.80 on Friday amid the quarterly strength and upbeat outlook.

The Street widely expects Levi's to have big back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons amid the closet rebuilding and kids returning to school.

"We believe the organic health of Levi's business is getting better overall as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the company seeing improving wholesale trends as well as increased denim demand as the world re-opens. We are encouraged by the company's offensive strategy, strong brand, experienced management team, and healthy financial position," Guggenheim retail analyst Robert Drbul said in a research note to clients.

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Drbul maintained his Buy rating on Levi's with a $33 price target.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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The pandemic has expanded waistlines and fattened Levi's sales - Yahoo Finance

Apple's stock has caught an under-the-radar bid over the past four weeks, and the momentum may be sticking around says JPMorgan (JPM) telecom and networking analyst Samik Chatterjee.

"The upside pressure on volumes for the iPhone 12 series, historical outperformance in the July-September time period heading into launch event, and further catalysts in relation to outperformance for iPhone 13 volumes relative to lowered investor expectations implies a very attractive set up for the shares in the second half of the year and thus expect Apple shares to outperform the broader market materially in 2H21," Chatterjee wrote in a new research note on Tuesday.

The analyst reiterated his Outperform rating and raised the price target to $170 from $165. He also lifted his estimates modestly higher on iPhone and iPad volumes.

Apple's stock rose nearly 2% to $142 in today's trading session.

Apple CEO Tim Cook REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

Chatterjee is particularly bullish near-term on Apple (AAPL) as it gears up for its typical barrage of new product launches this fall.

Says Chatterjee, "The historical track record for Apple shares heading into the September iPhone launch event has been to outperform the broader market consistently each year. While the magnitude of the outperformance in July-September is generally driven by investor expectations heading into the next iPhone cycle, we believe the setup is attractive and Apple shares are positioned for a significant outperformance over the next 2-3 months given the 1H underperformance as well as the near-term upside on volume expectations for iPhone 12 series from recent share gains, particularly in China."

The bullish commentary casts some much-needed light on Apple's stock price movement in recent weeks, which has escaped the view of many strategists who appear more concerned with Fed tapering and the volatility in meme stocks such as AMC.

Apple shares have surged 13% over the past month, bringing it close to its record intraday high of $144 and change in late April. That month's long performance puts it in lockstep with a similar move in fellow mega-cap tech play Amazon. Apple and Amazon shares are the best-performing FAANG stocks of the last month.

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Shares of the iPhone maker are up 7.5% in last six sessions. The advance marks the longest stretch of positive sessions for Apple since April, according to Bloomberg data.

"The tech bull cycle will continue in our opinion its upward move in 2H2021/2022 given the scarcity of growth names/winners in this market looking ahead on the heels of the 4th Industrial Revolution playing out among enterprises/consumers. Our favorite large cap tech name to play the 5G transformational cycle is Apple, with the 1-2 punch of its massive services business and iPhone product cycle translating into a $3 trillion market cap for Cupertino in 2022 in our opinion," Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives says.

Ives rates Apple's stock at an Outperform with a $185 price target.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Apple stock is on fire but will it last? - Yahoo Finance

In the early months of 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was living in exile in the United States lonely, sad and bewildered as he grew ever more estranged from the Saudi kingdom he had served faithfully for many decades.

But then, there was a bright spot. He fell in love. Or at least, he certainly appeared to.

You will be the happiest bride, he wrote Hanan El-Atr, an Egyptian flight attendant for Emirates airline, to whom he proposed, in a text message that spring. And in another: I throw myself at you, kiss you and delight you. I take out a watch or a necklace or perfume I bought for you to delight you.

Khashoggis relationship with El-Atr has always been awkward for his friends and allies. His grisly murder inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, took place on a day he had gone there to get divorce records proving he was no longer married to his wife back in Saudi Arabia documents he needed so he could marry another woman, Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish graduate student.

Yet exactly four months before his assassination, on June 2, 2018, Khashoggi had married El-Atr in an Islamic ceremony performed by an imam in a northern Virginia mosque, according to court records reviewed by Yahoo News. The couple never got a civil marriage license that would have made their union official. But the groom plunked down $2,000 for two rings for his Islamic bride the receipts from a local jewelry store El-Atr proudly displays as further proof of their union.

Hanan El-Atr and Jamal Khashoggi. (Courtesy of Hanan El-Atr)

And yet, Khashoggi never mentioned the religious marriage to many of his closest friends at the time. Its an example, says one of those friends, of his penchant to be secretive about much of his life.

If somebody sits across from you when youre interviewing people about Jamal and tells you that Jamal told them everything, they are 100 percent lying to you, says Mohammed Soltan, the Egyptian American human rights activist who collaborated with Khashoggi during this time. Jamal compartmentalized, he told different people certain things about his life. He gave nobody a full view of his life. He kept all of it with himself, and he gave different people the things that they needed to know. So, I had no idea about Hanan.

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The story of Khashoggis complicated personal life during the last year of his life is the subject of A Tale of Two Women, Episode 7 in the new season of Yahoo News Conspiracyland podcast, The Secret Lives and Brutal Death of Jamal Khashoggi. It is a story that overlaps with a period in which Khashoggi, as a columnist for the Washington Post, was becoming ever more forceful in his criticisms of the harsh crackdowns of Saudi Arabias de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even comparing him at one point to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It is also a period in which Saudi electronic surveillance of critics of Crown Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, became ever more pervasive and oppressive. And, as Conspiracyland reveals, that surveillance even extended to Khashoggis love life, revealing vulnerabilities that MBSs operatives were only too happy to exploit.

Atr, in an extensive and at times emotional interview with Conspiracyland, recounts the story of their relationship: They had met nine years earlier while Khashoggi was in Dubai for a conference. A tall and reserved woman, Atr said they had swapped phone numbers and stayed in touch, exchanging funny videos and messages about their favorite lines of Arabic poetry. But by the early months of 2018, with Khashoggi living in the Washington area and Hanan having twice-a-month flights there, they became something of an item. Khashoggi took her as his date to a birthday dinner for him that March (although there is some confusion as to the actual date of his birthday). A couple of weeks later, he proposed marriage.

He said, You sure you want to be with me? said Atr, recounting Khashoggis proposal. He said, Because I have heavy luggage, I dont have a stable life.

And Atrs response: Im with you, Jamal, I believe in you and love you because [of] the way you are.

Jamal Khashoggi and Hanan El-Atr. (Courtesy of Hanan El-Atr)

It is perhaps understandable that Khashoggi repeatedly harassed online by his Saudi tormentors wanted to keep his private life exactly that: private. That could well explain his failure to tell many of his U.S. friends about his relationship with Atr. But as she explains it, the Saudis, and their close allies in the United Arab Emirates, apparently did know about it, resulting in a harrowing experience when she flew back to Dubai.

In early May, just weeks after Khashoggis marriage proposal, Atr says that Emirati security forces pulled her aside at the airport. They took all [my] devices. They came to my house. They searched [it], she recalls. Then they start to talk about Jamal.

Atr says she was detained for 10 days while the Emirati security agents grilled her time and again about her relationship with Khashoggi.

But as they were doing so, Khashoggi was attending another conference in Istanbul, and starting a relationship with another woman, Hatice Cengiz. As she recalls it, she approached him at the conference and asked for an interview. When he agreed, she was thrilled. Hes the most important journalist and name and thinker in the region, says Cengiz. It was, she added, the start of a very special relationship between them.

Khashoggi left Istanbul but began exchanging messages with Cengiz. He flew back to Istanbul again that spring, got together with Cengiz and soon thereafter flew back yet again, this time with a birthday present for her a necklace and earrings. By the summer, she says, they were talking every day, more than two or three or four times. Soon enough, Khashoggi was talking about getting an apartment and moving to Istanbul. And he proposed marriage again this time to Cengiz.

Hatice Cengiz in London in 2018. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

But there was a bit of a problem, to say the least: He had told Cengiz nothing about Atr. Nor, for that matter, had he told Atr anything about Cengiz. My sister is here in Istanbul, he texted Atr in mid-July, apparently attempting to explain the extra time he was spending in Istanbul.

Things got more than a little awkward when Khashoggi met with Cengizs father, a businessman, who began grilling him about his intentions and his background, especially about whether he had any other wives.

My father knows very well the Arabs get married more than [once] at the same time, says Cengiz. And then he asked him, Are you sure youre not married? Its a little bit of a sensitive point for my father.

Khashoggi responded: Im not married. Im divorced, recalls Cengiz. Jamal doesnt need to lie to anyone.

Had Khashoggi ever mentioned to her the other wife he had married in the United States in June? she was asked.

He told me when he proposed to me, there is no one in his life, she replied.

But even as Khashoggi was carrying on his double life, the Saudi surveillance overseen by MBSs right-hand man, Saud al-Qahtani, was intensifying. The Saudis had bought a sophisticated form of spyware called Pegasus from an Israeli company, NSO Group. That spyware allowed them to penetrate the iPhones of regime critics, reading their messages in real time.

One of those targeted was Omar Abdulaziz, the dissident living in Montreal whose personal data had been stolen by Saudi spies at Twitter. Abdulaziz was by then swapping messages with Khashoggi about a scheme to counter Saudi disinformation, sending SIM cards to regime critics so they could post anonymously on social media without al-Qahtanis snoops knowing who they were.

But that summer, Abdulaziz was tipped off to the Pegasus penetration of his phone by investigators at Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto affiliated group. As soon as he learned about it, he called Khashoggi. Oh gosh, Khashoggi replied. May God help us.

The Trump White House struggles with how to respond to the Khashoggi murder. President Trump makes repeated calls to MBS and his father, King Salman, inquiring about the bone saw that was believed to have been used to carve up Khashoggis body. But Trump chooses to accept Saudi denials of involvement in the murder so as not to disrupt huge arms sales the kingdom was committed to making from U.S. defense contractors. And when he had the chance, President Biden who had pledged during his campaign to make pariahs of the Saudis declined to impose any punishment on MBS, the Saudi official who the CIA had concluded authorized the operation that led to Khashoggis death.

In case you missed it:

Episode 1: Exclusive: Saudi assassins picked up illicit drugs in Cairo to kill Khashoggi

Episode 2: Arms, harems and a Trump-owned yacht: How a Khashoggi family member helped mold the U.S.-Saudi relationship

Episode 3: I just fell apart crying heartbreak to you: A murdered journalists years-long relationship with Osama bin Laden

Episode 4: From royal insider to target: How the Arab Spring propelled Jamal Khashoggi into the Saudi leaderships crosshairs

Episode 5: A personality type that feels absolutely no guardrails: How Saudi Arabias leader charmed Washington while cracking down on opponents

Episode 6: A direct trail of blood drops leads from a Twitter hack to Jamal Khashoggis murder

Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: courtesy of Hanan El-Atr (2), Dylan Martinez/Reuters

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'He gave nobody a full view of his life': In his final days, Jamal Khashoggi juggled a secret wife in the U.S. and a fiance in Turkey - Yahoo News

Some of the mega-caps have underperformed the market this year, but none have had it as hard as Alibaba (BABA). Shares sit 14% into negative territory in 2021, as the company has engaged in various scuffles with Chinese regulators from which the stock has yet to fully recover.

With the June quarter now behind us, Nomuras Jialong Shi thinks the company is also suffering due to last years post-pandemic economic recovery in China and believes the quarter amounted to a light period due to several factors.

First, the years June quarter had a high base to compare as the ecommerce growth last year was fueled by post-pandemic pent-up demand as well as consumer coupons granted by many local municipalities to boost consumption, the 5-star analyst said. Secondly, in light of increased regulatory scrutinies, industry leaders like BABA could be increasingly cautious this year in marketing and promotion spends, and this could dent its growth.

Chinas e-commerce market growth is also showing signs of deceleration. The growth rate hit 16% in April yet only reached 10% in May.

As such, while Shi expects Alibabas total revenue in 1QFY22 to grow by 33% year-over-year to CNY204 billion, the figure is 5% beneath the latest consensus estimate of CNY215 billion. The analyst also thinks consolidated EBITA could decline by 10% from the same period last year to CNY41 billion, just under the Streets forecast of CNY42 billion.

The below-consensus revenue projection is due to last years acquisition of one of Chinas largest supermarket chains Sun Art. China has experienced a massive uptick in online grocery shopping which Shi says is impacting the retail supermarket business.

Consequently, the sluggish offline supermarket sales could see revenue for the companys new retail segment fall by 13% quarter-over-quarter to CNY52 billion, which is also below the Streets forecast of CNY62 billion.

All in all, however, theres no change to Shis rating which stays a Buy, or price target, which remains at $285. Upside potential from current levels is 42%. (To watch Shis track record, click here)

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Looking at the consensus breakdown, barring one Hold, all other 26 recent reviews are to Buy, naturally culminating in a Strong Buy consensus rating. The average price target is a bullish one; at $298.33, the figure suggests 12-month gains of ~49%. (See Alibaba stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Is Alibaba Stock a Buy Right Now? This Is What You Need to Know - Yahoo Finance