Source: eCompany Author: Han Zhongnan On June 25th, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosed that Berkshire Hathaway sold 2.0175 million shares of BYD Company Limited on June 19th, with an average reduction price of HKD 234.57 per share, cashing out approximately HKD 473 million, and the shareholding ratio decreased from 6.18% to 5.99%. It is worth noting that on June 11, Berkshire Hathaway just made a reduction and cashed out HKD 311 million. Reviewing the previous information, since the first reduction of BYD in August 24, 2022, the "stock god" Buffett has reduced his holdings of BYD many times. The shareholding ratio of Berkshire Hathaway has been adjusted from 19.92% to the current 5.99%. Some strategic analysts said that once Berkshire Hathaway's shareholding ratio of BYD drops to 5%, Buffett's reduction speed may accelerate. On June 25th, BYD A shares rose by 1.63%, closing at RMB 254.01 per share, and Hong Kong stocks rose by 0.84%, closing at HKD 239.60 per share. In the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting held in May this year, Buffett mentioned BYD, saying that BYD and Costco were the stocks that he and Munger worked together for these years and Munger most firmly advocated buying. Talking about why he reduced holdings of BYD, Buffett said that Berkshire Hathaway's investment in BYD was similar to the investment in Japan five years ago, which was a large investment that was rare outside of the United States. In the future, he hopes to focus more on the United States. In fact, recently, not only has Buffett been continuously reducing his holdings of BYD, but his favorite "apple" has also been greatly reduced. The latest holding situation submitted by Berkshire Hathaway to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that in the first quarter of 2024, Buffett reduced his holdings of Apple Inc. by about 116 million shares, reducing his holdings of Apple from 49.3% at the end of 2023 to 40.3%. Analysts pointed out that judging from the portfolio adjustment actions, Buffett is withdrawing from the technology sector and returning to the industries he was familiar with before. The most obvious change is that Buffett has re-established a large position in Chubb Ltd. which he previously owned. Buffett also said in a recent letter to shareholders, "Property and casualty insurance provides the core protection for Berkshire's health and growth." "Only take a swing when conditions are right," Buffett believes that unless he can find investment standards with low risk and lucrative returns, he will not spend this money.

On the evening of October 18, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosed that JPMorgan increased its holdings on October 14 by approximately 56.36 million shares, with an average price of 105.0870 Hong Kong dollars, involving about 5.922 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 5.4 billion RMB). The number of shares held after the increase is 1.551 billion shares, and the shareholding ratio increased from 7.80% to 8.09%. $BABA-W (09988.HK)$ Specifically, since September, Taobao has started to fully support various payment methods such as Alipay and WeChat Pay. JPMorgan estimates that currently there are 0.2 billion to 0.3 billion WeChat Pay users who are not yet Taobao users. The mutual interconnection is expected to bring 20% to 30% incremental users to Taobao. "We believe this represents a more significant potential than what most investors expected," JPMorgan stated in the research report.

Before the november 11 shopping festival-related on Tmall, JPMorgan recently released the latest research reports pointing out that the platform interoperability is expected to bring 20%-30% incremental users to Taobao, with a total scale of 0.2 billion-0.3 billion users, reiterating an overweight rating on Alibaba and raising the target price to $125.

QuestMobile's latest report shows that driven by mutual interconnection measures, the scale of new installations of Taobao APP in September increased by 55% year-on-year, reaching the highest value in the past four years; in terms of monthly active users, Taobao added 18.67 million in September, with a total monthly active scale reaching 0.944 billion, a historical high.

In addition, JPMorgan pointed out that other positive factors are expected to boost Alibaba's stock price in the coming quarters, such as government-led consumption stimulus policies, Taobao's latest monetization strategy, and incremental funds brought in by the inclusion in the Hong Kong Stock Connect program.

Alibaba's latest financial report for the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year shows that as of the quarter ended June 30, 2024, Alibaba recorded revenue of 243.236 billion yuan, a 4% year-on-year increase; adjusted EBITDA was 51.161 billion yuan, a 2% decrease year-on-year; net income was 24.022 billion yuan, a 27% decrease year-on-year; net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was 24.269 billion yuan, a 29% decrease year-on-year.

By business segment, in the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, Alibaba's core e-commerce and cloud businesses continued to make positive progress: Taotian Group's online GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) maintained stable growth; Alibaba Cloud focused on 'public cloud + AI', with double-digit growth in public cloud business revenue and triple-digit growth in AI-related product revenue; Alibaba's international e-commerce business continued to grow strongly, with revenue increasing by 32% to 29.293 billion yuan, including a 38% growth in international retail business in China.

During the analyst conference call for the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year financial report, Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming pointed out that most of Alibaba's businesses outside of e-commerce and cloud are expected to achieve breakeven within 1-2 years, gradually beginning to contribute to scalable profitability.

This year, Alibaba officially completed its dual primary listing in Hong Kong and was officially included in the Stock Connect program. On September 9, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges announced adjustments to the list of securities eligible for trading under the Stock Connect program, officially including Alibaba, effective September 10, 2024. This means that southbound funds will be able to purchase Alibaba through the Stock Connect program.

On the first day that Alibaba was included in the Stock Connect program (September 10), the total turnover of active stocks under the Stock Connect program (including Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect) amounted to 18.177 billion Hong Kong dollars, accounting for 50.52% of the total turnover on that day, with a net purchase amount of 8.393 billion Hong Kong dollars. Among the active stocks on the list, Alibaba-W had the highest turnover at 8.636 billion Hong Kong dollars.

It is worth mentioning that Alibaba's co-founder and chairman, Tsai Chongxin, has been steadily increasing his holdings in Alibaba. According to Alibaba's disclosure, as of August 28, Tsai Chongxin holds 0.27675 billion shares of the company, accounting for approximately 1.44%. Previously, as of May 20, Tsai Chongxin held 0.2753 billion shares of Alibaba.

Editor/Lambor