We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Latest Lightning Round: Top 10 Stocks to Watch. Since Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) ranks 1st on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC talked about the latest rebound in the market.
“Never get tired of all-time highs. We are experiencing a time for the market which is what I said would happen when the Fed starts cutting rates when the economy is still solid.”
Cramer said that the key reason the market roared to highs was strong earnings from top banks. He said since the Fed’s interest rate cuts have just started, investors believe maybe the “best is yet to come.”
Jim Cramer wondered whether this strong performance trend would be a “pattern” in this earnings season.
“We will find out soon enough. We will see if the positive action will be sustained.”
Cramer recommended investors to “listen to the calls” this earning season and “ponder a moment, and only then should you pull the trigger.”
“We are at the beginning of one of the year’s four reporting periods. Probably the most exciting. I can’t believe I still get fired up, but man, am I ever.”
For this article, we watched the latest episodes of Jim Cramer’s ‘Lightning Round’ segment on CNBC and picked 10 stocks he was talking about. With each company, we have mentioned its hedge fund sentiment. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 308
Talking about an analyst downgrade on Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Cramer questioned the logic of naysayers and said the company always makes a comeback.
“How many times has Amazon been up against headwinds? Do you know how many times they’ve made inexplicable moves? It is nothing new. They always came back; it is in their DNA. It always does. I remember a year and a half ago I was screaming because Amazon Web Services was underperforming, and it came right back.”
Cramer thinks it’s just a matter of time before the stock comes back.
“I think it is a matter of time before Amazon bounces back as usual. No hurry. The stock does seem to be headed lower; I have no doubt about that. I get it. But sell to buy it lower? Can you really get back in that? Too hard.”
AWS’s revenue growth accelerated from 17.2% in Q1 to 18.8% in Q2, driven by a shift from on-premises infrastructure to cloud solutions and increasing demand for AI capabilities. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) advertising segment added over $2 billion in revenue year-over-year, indicating significant potential in video advertising and opportunities within Prime Video offerings.
Like other tech companies, fears stemming from high CapEX are keeping investors on the sidelines. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) spending is expected to rise amid broadband project Project Kuiper and AI growth. Investors are still figuring out whether AI monetization and ROI will come anytime soon. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is also facing a slowdown in consumer spending, especially for higher-ticket items like electronics and computers.
Based on Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) Q3 guidance, its revenue growth would be 11%. The stock is trading 35x its fiscal 2025 earnings estimates set by Wall Street. This shows the stock is fairly priced and investors looking for strong growth could look elsewhere.
Alphyn Capital Management stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) continued growth is driven by its strong performance in AWS and advertising, which grew 19% and 20%, respectively. E-commerce growth moderated to 9.3%, likely due to softer consumer demand.
In previous letters, I mentioned how Amazon’s heavy investments in logistics and fulfillment suppressed margins for some time, but the company is now reaping the rewards of those earlier expenditures. European operations have been profitable for the second consecutive quarter, while North American operating margins have risen from pandemic lows to 5.3%. A key ongoing area of focus for Amazon has been reducing the “cost to serve”; this is beginning to show tangible benefits. In 2023, Amazon undertook a “regionalization” strategy, which divided the U.S. into eight distinct regions for fulfillment and transportation, with corresponding distribution centers in each. As I learned from an expert interview done by InPractise, “regionalization” has resulted in estimated shipping expenses dropping from $4.76 per unit to $4.50, and they are now approximately $4.26, with potential reductions of 2-3% annually. Interestingly, Amazon leaned on its third-party vendors (3P) to finance much of this strategy. It did so by requiring 3P vendors ship inventory to the multiple regional distribution centers, instead of to a single location as they used to do. Moreover, Amazon imposed penalties for failing to meet strict minimum and maximum quantities. In this way, Amazon used 3P inventory to expand its distribution capacity by around 24 million square feet, much of which it could use for its own 1P inventory. Clever strategy, but one wonders if this raises the risk of an eventual vendor backlash due to the added financial and logistical pressures on 3P sellers.
Like Alphabet, Amazon is investing heavily in its AWS infrastructure to support its growing AI business. In the first half of the year, the company spent $30.5 billion on capital expenditures, with plans to exceed that in the year’s second half. When questioned about this during the earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy emphasized that they are seeing significant demand for AI-related services, which he believes will become a “very large” business for Amazon.”
Overall, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) ranks 1st on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer Latest Lightning Round: Top 10 Stocks to Watch. While we acknowledge the potential of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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