Last week, we asked you to cast your vote in the Motley Fool CAPS community for the company you believed would be the best-performing e-commerce stock in 2007. Our experts gave you formidable reasons to vote for contenders such as Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Blue Nile (NASDAQ:NILE), and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN). Each contender had its own compelling prospects -- Netflix with its digital movie download launch, Blue Nile with its ever-stronger presence in luxury jewelry, and Amazon's continued rollout of innovative services.
From among the list of nine worthy companies, the company that you picked to be the best e-commerce stock for 2007 is ... (drum roll, please) Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO).
Yahoo! has had its share of problems, but its diversity of online real estate, as well as its improving long-term prospects, presents an opportunity for investors with longer time horizons.
As CAPS community member fool2besomeday pointed out a few months ago:
Fundamentally, Yahoo is creating 8 cents of value for every dollar invested. It also generates gobs of FCF each and every quarter/year. It is roughly 60% off its high and about 10% off its low. We all know that Google is the flashier/sexier choice of the two. We also know that the internet is large enough to support these two behemoths. Let Google have the majority of the advertising revenue. There is plenty to go around. The growth rates for both sales and EPS have been off the chart. The business model is sound.
It looks like the majority of our Fool community also agreed with analyst Steven Mallas' argument that cited Yahoo!'s " ability to leverage brand equity to justify its acquisition strategy and ... its ability to turn these acquisitions into bottom-line profits" as one major strength that makes it worth holding on to.
This was a tough contest, but it looks like the best stock won. Some of the reasons outlined above are also why Yahoo! has made the cut as a Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection. Although the competition for the best e-commerce stock for 2007 is over, you're welcome to continue to add your opinion to the Motley Fool CAPS database. Just click here to join for free and make your voice heard!
Netflix, Amazon, and Yahoo! are all Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations. To see why, take a free 30-day trial to the market-crushing newsletter today.
Blue Nile is a Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Hidden Gems recommendation.
Fool sector head and e-commerce editor Shruti Basavaraj owns shares of Blue Nile. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
