Alibaba (BABA) closed the most recent trading day at $164.75, moving -0.4% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500’s 0.03% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.03%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.05%.

Prior to today’s trading, shares of the online retailer had lost 3.76% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector’s gain of 3.41% and the S&P 500’s gain of 3.1% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from BABA as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be November 1, 2018. In that report, analysts expect BABA to post earnings of $1.25 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 3.1%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $13.03 billion, up 57.25% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.69 per share and revenue of $58.11 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.59% and +51.63%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for BABA. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 15.93% lower within the past month. BABA is holding a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now.

In terms of valuation, BABA is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 29.11. This represents a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 28.95.

Meanwhile, BABA’s PEG ratio is currently 0.84. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company’s expected earnings growth rate into account. BABA’s industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.08 as of yesterday’s close.

The Internet – Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 203, putting it in the bottom 20% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Alibaba Group Holding Executive Chairman and co-founder Jack Ma has been a living symbol not only for his mushrooming e-commerce business, but for New China writ large: flamboyant, plain-spoken, enthusiastically at home in a global spotlight. With Ma’s announced retirement, company and country revert to type. CEO Daniel Zhang, who will add the chairman’s title a year from now, is an unruffled, cerebral, finance guy who trained at Arthur Andersen and PwC before joining Alibaba in 2007. “Jack Ma is Superman, Daniel is Clark Kent,” says Kevin Carter, founder of the Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce exchange-traded fund.

Investors took the news calmly. Alibaba shares (ticker: BABA) rose 2% in the week following Sept. 7, when Ma’s plans started to leak. That is driven by expectations of a smooth and amiable succession. Ma ceded the CEO’s chair five years ago–spending less time counting beans and more globe-trotting or starring in his own martial arts film. Zhang’s executive chops are well tested. He pioneered the fantastically successful Singles Day sales promotion in 2009. Last year’s version took in $25 billion, compared with $1 billion for Amazon Prime Day. Since Zhang’s promotion to CEO in May 2015, the company’s shares have doubled. “I don’t see Ma stepping down as chairman having much impact on daily operations,” says Jasmine Huang, portfolio manager of the Columbia Greater China fund (NGCAX) at Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

Behind Ma’s high flying persona, Alibaba has developed a collective leadership model closer to Chinese tradition than the dominant visionary typical of Western tech. Control is vested in a 36-member board, split 50-50 between founders and current executives. (Outside shareholders have no vote because they hold stock through a so-called variable interest entity.)

Still, Ma’s retirement raises questions. The first concerns timing. Ma apparently wants to step down in conjunction with Alibaba’s 20th anniversary next year. But investors may find it curious for the captain to abandon ship when the shares are down 20% in the past three months, and China’s economy sails into choppy waters. “It’s not him stepping down by itself. It’s him stepping down with the overhang that’s facing the company,” says Ken Sena, CEO of independent researcher Aiera. We urged caution on the stock back in March (“Tencent, Alibaba Shares: Don’t Rush Back In,” March 30).

A larger issue is how well the collective governing structure is suited to the complex strategic choices facing Alibaba, which is growing fast in a fast-changing market. The core e-commerce business looks like a self-perpetuating money machine. But Alibaba has myriad options on where to expand, and deploy capital: offline retail, financial services, cloud computing?

Zhang is known as an apostle of bricks-and-mortar stores, which investors conceptually applaud as a complement to online dominance. But the build-out costs money. Alibaba’s revenue leapt 61% year-over-year in the latest reporting quarter, profit a mere 33% thanks to a tripling of capital expenditure. “There’s some risk that Alibaba’s expansion in several areas at the same time could dilute the profitability of the core business,” says Ramiz Chelat, a portfolio manager for Vontobel Asset Management’s Quality Growth boutique.

Ma’s business achievements over two decades have been superhuman in scale, and at 54 he has time for a rich new chapter in humanitarian work. He’s laid his succession plans meticulously. But there’s a famous line about best-laid plans.