Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Continues to Confound Critics

Similarly, AWS is Amazon’s gateway into the cloud computing, which is expected to become a $241 billion industry in the next seven years. Through its low-cost cloud computing platform Redshift, Amazon is ramping up the competition with International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM). Moreover, AWS is compatible with SAP (NYSE:SAP) HANA, SAP’s groundbreaking in-memory database and platform, which I have dealt with in more detail in my previous article.

Overall, I love Amazon as a company, but it is a growth story that continues to fly based on potential rather than return. This is a company that confounds value investors while the stock continues to climb. A P/E of nearly 3,000 is something that one simply cannot use to evaluate this company. This is a company built on the quality of its balance sheet entirely. That Amazon has been able to quadruple its balance sheet with only a 10% dilution of its float while carrying zero short term and just $3.1 billion in long term debt since 2008 is the proof that its strategy works.

The question will be whether it can continue to grow its assets at the same pace – a 31.3% CAGR – in 2013 and beyond. CEO Jeff Bezos doesn’t believe in resting on his laurels and has guided the company to this state. As long as it continues to make the right infrastructure moves consistent with macroeconomic trends, Amazon will continue to confound nearly everyone.

The article Amazon Continues to Confound Critics originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Peter Pham.

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