Editor’s Note: Related tickers, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK)
Obama and the Senate Target The Internet Shopping Gravy Train For Amazon, eBay And Others (Forbes)
There are a number of reasons that consumers have flocked to online shopping sites run by Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), and Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) as well as the online sites run by major retailers such as Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), and other traditional brick and mortar retailers. Convenience and the ability to compare prices and get better deals are some of those reasons. Given the unemployment rate, which has continued to fall not because of a robust jobs recovery, but rather because each month more people leave the workforce, and tepid disposable income it makes sense that consumers have become big time price shoppers. And with a few clicks, it’s easy to do. If your lucky, you can also wiggle some free shipping and get your package via United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) or FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) in no time at all.
Are investors willing to give Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) as much credit for its big investments in the future as they are giving Internet search giant Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)? It’s a crucial question to consider ahead of Amazon.com’s AMZN +1.52% first-quarter report on Thursday afternoon, where expectations are clearly high. Amazon’s shares are trading more than 130 times estimated earnings for the next four quarters — about eight times the average multiple for its peer group, according to FactSet data. And Wall Street clearly sees the stock going much higher. The current range of price targets go from a low of $245 to a high of $370 — with $320 at the median, which is more than 20% above the stock’s current level.
Amazon’s AWS Turns On Redshift Data Warehousing And EC2 High Storage In Europe (TechCrunch)
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s business model, CTO Werner Vogels reminded us today, is based on “low margins, high volume”, and today the company announced a development on how it’s applying that principle to its enterprise services. From today, AWS is expanding to Europe its Redshift data warehousing service and its EC2 High Storage service. Amazon first announced the intention to take Redshift global in February; it’s actually turning on Europe today. The news of the international expansion was made this morning during the Amazon Web Services Summit in London, part of a wider roadshow for AWS. Redshift, Amazon’s petabyte-scale solution to better manage huge backlogs of data, was first announced in November 2012. It is very competitive on price: traditional data warehousing solutions can cost between $19,000 and $25,000 per terabyte while Redshift charges $1,000 per terabyte per year.
Analyst Downgrades: Amazon.com, Inc., Yum! Brands, Inc., and Mosaic Co (SchaeffersResearch)
Analysts are weighing in today on Internet marketplace Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), quick-service restaurateur Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), and agricultural chemicals producer Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS). Here’s a quick roundup of today’s bearish brokerage notes. …which is due to reveal quarterly earnings after this Thursday’s close — saw its price target slashed to $350 from $360 at Topeka this morning. However, the equity has advanced about 40% during the past year, which could explain the prevailing optimistic attitude among the brokerage bunch. In fact, Amazon.com, Inc. sports no fewer than 19 “strong buys” and two “buy” recommendations, versus 10 “holds” and not a single “sell” suggestion. Furthermore, the stock’s average 12-month price target of $315 reflects expected upside of about 19.5% to yesterday’s closing price of $263.55.
Digi, Amazon.com, Facebook: Intellectual Property (Bloomberg)
Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ:DGII), a provider of wireless products, has settled a patent case brought by U.S. Ethernet Innovations, the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company said in a statement. …Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s founder Jeffrey Bezos is a named inventor on an application for a patent on a portable device that receives both content and power wirelessly. According to application 20130069865, the device is a display system that is remote from, and without a tangible connection to, a primary station. This would enable the device to be smaller and more lightweight than many present-day devices that must incorporate a large battery. Amazon.com said in the application that while the size of batteries used in mobile devices are “continuously getting smaller, the operational or functional time of these smaller batteries is often insufficient for many users.”
