Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, online retail giant Amazon.com
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Amazon's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Amazon facts
| Headquarters (Founded) | Seattle (1994) |
| Market Cap | $82.56 billion |
| Industry | Internet retail |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $34.2 billion |
| Management |
Founder/Chairman/CEO Jeff Bezos CFO Thomas Szkutak |
| Return on Equity (Average Past 3 Years) | 25% |
| Cash/Debt | $8.76 billion / $647 million |
| 1-Year Return | 55% |
| Competitors |
eBay
Overstock.com |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 22% of the 5,291 members who have rated Amazon believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include All-Star LucaC, who is ranked in the top 2% of our community, and baselineace.
Late last month, LucaC wrote that Amazon bear case all boiled down to price: "Outstanding company, too high valuation. 2011 will be the year when the market won't tolerate its high [P/E] anymore."
In fact, Amazon currently sports a lofty P/E of 72.8, representing a substantial premium to online retail rivals eBay (23.6) and Overstock (29.9), as well as brick-and-mortar foes Best Buy
CAPS member baselineace touched on Amazon's recent earnings miss:
You probably saw that Amazon.com tanked after reporting earnings. ... This came as no surprise to me. Margins have continued to compress as the company has opted to engage in price wars with Walmart, rather than focus on its other competitive advantages. ... Maybe [margins] aren't important to [CEO Jeff Bezos], but as evidenced by today's performance, they certainly do matter to the market.
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