Shares of Amazon.com
How it got here
Amazon.com definitely isn't the cheapest apple of the bunch, but a three-pronged approach has given the company a clear advantage over its peers and allowed sales growth to expand 29% in its most recent quarter.
First, Amazon's core retail business is utilizing simplicity to keep customer convenience at the forefront. With Amazon's Kindle and Kindle Fire able to download books digitally, Amazon has essentially saved consumers the hassle of having to go to the bookstore. That's one of the many reasons Barnes & Noble
Secondly, Amazon has become a digital streaming nightmare for both Netflix
Finally, Amazon is the premier cloud operating play with its EC2 pay-as-you-go platform and S3 storage infrastructure set up to allow its cloud clients to transfer data at will while only paying for what they need. Intel
How it stacks up
Let's see how Amazon stacks up next to its peers.
It's really been a great couple of years for everyone except for Barnes & Noble, which is struggling to reinvent itself. Even Netflix, which has corrected in a big way from its all-time high, is still up more than 250% over the past five years.
Company |
Price/Book |
Price/Cash Flow |
Forward P/E |
5-Year Projected Earnings Growth Rate* |
---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon.com | 15.1 | 35.7 | 71.2 | 33.6% |
Barnes & Noble | 0.9 | NM | 45.2 | (167.1%) |
Netflix | 5 | 23 | 31.8 | 15.6% |
Apple | 5.6 | 12 | 12.4 | 22.3% |
Source: Morningstar. NM = not meaningful. *Figures from Yahoo! Finance.
This is definitely a tale of four companies on four different paths.
Based on the metrics above, Barnes & Noble is merely struggling for its survival. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the largest company in the world, Apple, is looking incredibly cheap at just 12 times forward earnings and a projected five-year growth rate of 22%. Netflix is struggling to find new avenues of growth after streaming and DVD competition, as well as management miscues, ate into its subscriber base. Finally, Amazon has chosen to reinvest nearly all of its cash flow into building out its three separate operations. It'll give up profitability now in exchange for greater market share gains.
What's next
Now for the $64,000 question: What's next for Amazon.com? That depends on whether Amazon continues to focus on the user experience, can successfully negotiate further content contracts for its streaming library, and can maintain its cloud dominance.
Our very own CAPS community gives the company a three-star rating (out of five), with 80.3% of members expecting it to outperform. You can count me among the 5,200-plus members that have bestowed a CAPScall of outperform on Amazon, with my call currently unchanged at the moment.
Normally, I don't chase companies that don't put profits first, but Amazon.com is one of the rare exceptions. Since I profiled Amazon as one of my 10 large caps to rule them all, it's only expanded its reach in streaming media and in the cloud. Little by little, Amazon has pushed traditional retailers into the corner while forcing even those companies that thrive off Internet-based services to adapt. Amazon's profits might seem anemic now, but it's not a company I'd dare stand in the way of given its cash flow capabilities.
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