What happened
Shares of JD.com (JD -0.56%) gained 10.4% in October 2019, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Chinese e-commerce leviathan enjoyed easing trade tensions between Beijing and Washington along with a rosy analyst report.
So what
The improving tenor in trade-talk posturing was a boon to many Chinese stocks last month, including several of JD's closest peers in the e-commerce sector. Group-shopping discounts wrangler Pinduoduo (PDD 1.10%) saw share prices rise 27% while sector-spanning online shopping giant Alibaba (BABA -1.15%) posted a gain of 5.6%, for example. That's one ingredient in JD's solid October gains.
The other half of those price gains came from analyst firm 86Research publishing a strongly positive research report on the stock on Oct. 11. The firm lifted JD from a "hold" to a "buy" while boosting target prices from $35 to $41 per share. The stock was trading near $28 per share before that report and nearly $30 per share later that day.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
86Research cited greater visibility of long-term margin expansion trends after a recent investor conference. JD's stock also looked cheap because of a 10% price drop over the span of three weeks. Analyst-powered gains continued in early November and JD's stock has now gained a total of 17.8% since the end of September.
All told, the stock has now gained 38% over the last 52 weeks. JD.com offers an intriguing combination of massive scale and rapid growth, and any investor with a serious interest in Chinese stocks should take a closer look at this ticker.
