For all their similarities, the near-term prospects of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) have rarely looked more divergent than they do right now. Amazon is up around 17% year to date and was setting fresh all-time highs just last week following another impressive earnings report. Alibaba, meanwhile, is down roughly 8% over the same period, continues to trade around 2017 levels and reported a revenue miss in its earnings this week.
At first glance, that might make Alibaba look like the obvious value play. After all, the company trades on a lower price-to-earnings (PE) multiple than Amazon and still has meaningful upside if China’s economy stabilizes and its AI ambitions gain traction. However, once you dig deeper into growth, execution, and momentum, the picture starts looking very different.
