Alibaba Group Holding Limited vs RELX PLC, two Internet Retail stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Alibaba sells goods and cloud capacity across China; RELX sells scientific and legal data to professionals who renew. RELX keeps 21.67 cents on the revenue dollar against Alibaba's 10.12, the premium of subscriptions over marketplace take rates. RELX also throws off more cash relative to price, 6.2% against 4.84%. Alibaba answers with a lower multiple, 14.85 times earnings, and a debt-free balance sheet trading at 1.41 times book. RELX asks 21.99 times. The buyer chooses between a discounted Chinese platform carrying policy risk in its price and a Western data business whose margins come from information nobody else holds. Different moats, different discounts.
Comparison updated 2026-07-11.
| Metric | BABA | RELX |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $112.33 | $32.45 |
| Market cap | $270.1B | $59.5B |
| Sector | Internet Retail | Internet Retail |
| Stage | Mature | Mature |
| Implied growth (priced in) | -0.2% | +1.9% |
| P/E | 17.6 | 22.8 |
| P/B | 1.67 | 19.68 |
| P/S | 1.82 | 4.90 |
| EV/EBITDA | 20.8 | 12.4 |
| Revenue growth | +2.6% | +7.5% |
| Gross margin | — | 66.3% |
| Operating margin | 4.9% | 31.6% |
| Net margin | 10.1% | 21.7% |
| Return on equity | 9.3% | 87.0% |
| Return on assets | 5.4% | 14.1% |
| Return on invested capital | 3.4% | 95.7% |
| FCF yield | 4.1% | 6.0% |
| Debt / equity | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Current ratio | 1.28 | 0.49 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 2.13 | 3.36 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 4 / 9 | 8 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.