Meme stock investor Ryan Cohen takes a stake in Alibaba

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Activist investor Ryan Cohen has reportedly accumulated a stake in Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba (NYSE:), The Wall Street Journal reported. The stake is worth hundreds of millions of dollars as the billionaire pushes the company to accelerate and boost its share buyback program.

The report adds that Mr. Cohen, who is estimated to be worth about $2.5 billion, built a stake in the second half of 2022. He reportedly contacted the company’s board in August last year to express his thoughts, particularly that he feels Alibaba shares are undervalued. Mr. Cohen told the board that he sees the e-commerce giant achieving double-digit sales and nearly 20% free-cash-flow growth over the next five years.

Alibaba announced in November that its board has approved boosting its stock buyback program by $15B to $40B with the end date now pushed forward to March 2025. In the meantime, Mr. Cohen told the company that he sees the stock buyback program being expanded by another $20B.

Mr. Cohen, who founded Chewy (NYSE:) in 2011, attracted the attention of meme stock investors after investing in GameStop (NYSE:). He also has a stake in Apple (NASDAQ:) worth around $800M.

Alibaba stock is trading over 20% higher since the end of August after staging a strong rally since October.