Research archive for AMZN

Last week Amazon reported third-quarter results which were slightly disappointing compared to expectations. Sales grew 15% to $110.8 billion versus estimates of $111.5 billion. This was because e-commerce sales only grew 3%. I suppose that makes sense because many businesses are struggling to produce enough stock to sell, due to logistics challenges. Amazon's in-house and third-party retailers are probably dealing with the same problems.

Currently, our US portfolios are focused on technology and healthcare. So we are always fired up by companies that straddle the two sectors.

Amazon just announced its newest invention - a home assistant robot named Astro. Astro is equipped with a screen that's mounted onto a base with wheels just like in those Star Wars films. The robot can perform various tasks including mobile security, playing music, calling your mates, and transporting things around if they weigh less than 2 kilograms.

Earlier in the year, Amazon announced that it had acquired distribution rights for SmartLess, a popular podcast hosted by actors Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. However, the company didn't do the deal just for the right to distribute some interesting content. Bezos and his team wanted to sell ads on the show.

Amazon reported its earnings on Thursday night last week. These are highly anticipated numbers because it's one of a few companies with over $1 trillion in market cap. Amazon beat profit expectations, but missed revenue forecasts. Sales grew by 41% in pandemic-stricken 2020, as a result of a societal shift to online shopping. In this reporting period they advanced by another 27%.

Now that Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon, the focus is on the history of the company under his tenure. I think one of the best lessons Amazon has taught us is to be patient investors. Let's look at the history of the share price to explain why.

As mentioned in a previous letter, we just had Amazon Prime Day on the 21st and 22nd of June. I thought it would be worthwhile to delve into some more details of what Amazon Prime Day actually is.

Amazon released its first quarter numbers on Thursday, smashing analyst expectations on both the top and bottom-line. The e-commerce behemoth continues to benefit from the surge in online shopping as demand remains robust for deliveries, the cloud business and advertising.

Amazon has a bad reputation in some circles. The most common criticism is about their labour practices. They pay too little and expect too much. When you employ 1.3 million people, there are bound to be a few grumpy employees?

In recent newsletters we have spoken about how the tech titans are busy diversifying their revenue streams to create future growth. Did you see that Amazon reached an agreement to pay $10 billion over 10 years for the exclusive rights to broadcast Thursday night NFL games? That is a lot of money for an e-tail company to spend on content! Amazon, of course, has a big long term plan.

Yesterday I wrote about Amazon and its ability to grow successful businesses fast by targeting their huge client base. Here is an example of a business they are building using their own large workforce instead. Amazon is launching its medical care business for its employees and other companies across the US.

Yesterday I spoke about the leadership changes at Amazon, today I will cover their spectacular results. Revenues increased a whopping 44% to $126 billion - the consensus expected $120 billion. That revenue translated into operating income of $6.8 billion for the quarter. Not too long ago, Amazon used to lose money during a quarter. More than half of those profits ($3.5 billion) came from Amazon Web Services.

Along with their results, Amazon had some big news for us last night. Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO and will be replaced by Andy Jassy who was previously the head of Amazon Web Services. Under his reign AWS has become the star of the Amazon show.

Amazon is said to be in talks to buy podcast startup Wondery in a deal worth $300 million. Wondery's last funding round was in June 2019, where the company raised $10 million at a $100 million valuation. This was the largest funding round for an independent podcasting company at the time. Today Wondery is the last large independent podcaster.

You would be forgiven to believe that Amazon dominates the global online retail market. In reality, they are only prominent in 12 countries.