Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Post-Covid, the CEO is making this a more efficient company with layoffs to lower costs.

Strong 1-year return of 18%, YTD of 49%. Trades at 2x sales. Compare that to NVDA at 40x, TSLA at 10x, META and GOOG at 5x. Upside is because it has 37% of US e-commerce. Focused on margins, not growth. Prime Video is a plus. Grocery business is growing. Lots of potential. No dividend.

Chosen because of its long-term potential, not recent moves. New CEO is doing all the right things like cutting costs, which should boost free cashflow per share. Exposure to two of the greatest growth areas: e-commerce and cloud computing. Demands for AI and cloud computing will be incredible. Got ahead of itself, interest rates brought multiple compression, but growth will shine through. Sees $200 in a couple of years. No dividend.

He doesn't care about today's FTC suit against Amazon for deceptive sign-up practices of Prime. Shares are up 48% YTD, but over 5 years only 46% vs. QQQ up 100%. Is concerned with AWS's decline, but AI will be revolutionary for them.

They've cut jobs and just announced will cut 37 projects in development. Good, because they had some expensive ones, and overall this will lower costs. Also, he think the shop-in-person trend is waning; it's easier and cheaper to get Prime to ship stuff to your home.

It has been left out of the AI party on the NASDAQ but has had a good year to date like the other big cap stocks. Its AWS (Amazon Web Services) is the biggest single provider of cloud computing. Management provided a conservative outlook on cloud spending but there is great medium term growth. It is priced fairly for this with good room to run for 3 to 5 years. It is also plays a part in the development of AI.    Buy 56  Hold 3  Sell 1

Has broken the downtrend. Looks positive, though it might pull back a bit. Safe at this point, leg in. But if it breaks down to a lower low, he'd get out.

Recent punishment of stock due to over investment in pandemic.
Believes stock currently priced attractively.
Amazon Web Services excellent business with high margins.
Very strong assets with good management team.
Thinks company will make $5 a share by 2025.
A.I. investment will also bear fruit. 

The question was on his preference re buying Ali Baba or Amazon. He prefers Amazon since it is in the U.S. and Ali Baba is in China which has more fraudulent companies. Also Ali Baba has a lot of competition and Amazon has little competition. Profitability is quite spotty with BABA but also can be spotty with Amazon.

As we're speaking today, AMZN is literally clearing the 200-day MA. Since 2022, stock's been below that MA. That's a big deal. A lot of eyes on that moving average. Intermediate-term trend is now up. Next upside target is around $130, 17% upside from current levels.

Consumer discretionary business.
AWS holding business together.
Competitive space in web services.
Out of seasonal period for Amazon.
Company going sideways on share price.
Wait until October to buy shares.

They report this week. He's long this name, but worried more about this than Meta. Laying off 20,000 workers among 1.5 million doesn't compare to Meta's cutbacks. Amazon has not performed like Microsoft; it's far below its high.

Believes investment during Covid-19 pandemic was too much.
Recovering from large capital investments.
eCommerce shopping not as strong as pandemic highs.
Large fixed costs will take time to recoup.
Amazon Web Services growing extremely well.

Has bounced, along with a lot of the US tech giants. A cyclical, the largest component of the US consumer discretionary index. Big driver of e-commerce is consumer confidence and retail spending, which is turning down. Cloud computing is a secular growth industry, but investment will be delayed if corporate confidence wanes. Not cheap. Better chance to add later.

A very strong business that is presenting a good buying opportunity.
Quality business with very strong assets.
AWS and eCommerce business top decile.
Good long term hold for next 5-10 years.