By George Glover

Count the king of meme-stocks among the investors betting that Alibaba Group's stellar recent run can last.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has upped his stake in the Chinese online retailer to 7 million shares worth about $1 billion in recent months, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Cohen first took a position in the e-commerce company two years ago and is loading up on more stock because he's betting that China's faltering economy will rebound, per the outlet.

Cohen and GameStop didn't immediately respond to a Barron's request for comment.

In December, Barron's highlighted Alibaba as one of 10 stock picks for 2025, arguing that it could jump 50% in 2025 if investors warm to beaten-down Chinese stocks.

The market has proved even more bullish. Alibaba American depositary receipts have jumped 60% in 2025, compared with a 4% rise for the S&P 500 index. The ADRs climbed another 4% in Friday's premarket after the Journal reported Cohen had upped his stake.

Quarterly earnings published Thursday underlined the stock's appeal. Revenue for Alibaba's traditional online retail business held up better than analysts were expecting as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures to revive sluggish growth. Cloud revenue also topped forecasts, thanks to a triple-digit surge in sales of artificial intelligence-related products, and the company looks set to double down on that division after it guided that it would aggressively increase its capital expenditures over the next three years.

At least 13 analysts covering the stock have raised their price targets since Thursday, according to FactSet data -- a sign of just how impressive the latest results were.

"Alibaba's earnings essentially checked all the boxes and more," Benchmark Equity Research's Fawne Jiang said in a research note, adding that the higher spending guidance reflects "both the surge in [AI] demand and the company's determination to lead in this transformative era." She rates shares at a Buy, with a $190 price target that implies they can climb another 40% from their current level.

News of Cohen's bet could give the stock another boost by luring in retail investors. He's seen as something of an oracle by the Reddit day-trading crowd, having founded the pet-food retailer Chewy, fanned the explosive surge in GameStop shares during the pandemic and built and then dumped a big stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, another onetime meme-stock favorite.

If analysts are right about Alibaba, he could be about to strike gold again.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 21, 2025 08:01 ET (13:01 GMT)

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