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in short meaning, that the profits are $4 a share or a return of 0.3%.
... I mean, how a company recover from that? It is not like if the profits were to going to explode in this razor-thin margin industry.
Amazon market cap hit $1 trillion on Tuesday, becoming the second publicly traded U.S. company to reach the record valuation after Apple.
Shares of the e-commerce giant rose nearly 2 percent to a high of $2,050.50 in morning trading. The stock needed to hit a price of $2,050.27 to reach the $1 trillion mark, based on an outstanding share count of 487,741,189 shares — according to the company's most recent quarterly report in July.
Amazon earnings: Analysts more optimistic about Amazon than Alibaba
Published: Oct 22, 2018 10:29 a.m. ET
Amazon.com Inc. is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the market closes on Oct. 25, and Stifel analysts are more upbeat about the e-commerce giant’s prospects in the near-term than they are about Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Stifel replaced Alibaba with Amazon on its Select List due to uncertainty in China’s macro environment.
They say Amazon is “a leader” in two large and growing markets: e-commerce and cloud services.
“Cloud services revenue, which has accelerated in each of the last three quarters is benefiting from stronger enterprise adoption as the company continues to add new features and services at a rapid pace,” analysts led by Scott Devitt wrote in a recent note.
“Amazon’s emerging advertising business is benefiting from improving usability of the tool and greater adoption given the company’s dominance in product search. Strong momentum in the higher-margin cloud services and advertising business are elevating the near-/intermediate-term margin trajectory for the company.”
Earnings: Amazon is expected to report earnings of $3.08 per share, including Whole Foods Market, according to the FactSet consensus, up from 52 cents per share last year. Estimize expects per-share earnings of $3.83.
Amazon beat FactSet earnings expectations that last four quarters.
Revenue: FactSet analysts expect revenue of $57.11 billion, up from 43.74 billion last year. Estimize expects revenue of $57.49 billion.
Amazon missed FactSet sales expectations last quarter, but beat expectations the five quarters before that.
Other issues:
Piper Jaffray analysts value Amazon’s advertising business at $150 billion to $190 billion.
“We assume $8 billion of ad revenue in 2018 doubles to $16 billion by 2020, with margins improving along the way,” analysts wrote in an October 19 note. This part of the business is becoming material, Piper Jaffray said. “Operating income will likely exceed AWS [Amazon Web Services] by 2021,” the note said.
Piper Jaffray expects AWS growth to decelerate in the mid-40s by the second half of the year. In the second quarter, growth was up 49% year-over-year. “Our expectations for 2018 margin expansion that is a result of easy comps off 2017, increasing Prime subscription rates, and strong AWS margins,” the note said. “Beyond 2018, we currently model an average 200-basis-point operating margin expansion from 2018 to 2020.”
Piper Jaffray rates Amazon shares overweight with a $2,100 price target.
The Fall 2018 Taking Stock With Teens Survey from Piper Jaffray shows that Amazon is gaining mindshare with U.S. teens.
Nearly three-quarters of the more than 8,000 respondents (74%) said their family has a Prime membership, up from 70% in the spring and 66% in fall 2017. Amazon has almost eight times the mindshare of its nearest competitor, Nike Inc., and 25 times more than eBay Inc.
Prime membership is estimated at 82 million U.S. households.
$1,670.00 : -$112.17 (-6.29%)
After hours: 4:15PM EDT
EPS of $5.75 vs estimates for $3.08 per share (FactSet), $3.83 per share (Estimize). $31.4 (Refinitiv) -- huge beat
Revenue of $56.6 billion vs estimates for $57.11 billion (FactSet), $57.49 billion (Estimize), $57.10 billion (Refinitiv) -- slight miss
Low Q4 2018 revenue guidance though. Expects revenue to be between $66.5 billion and $72.5 billion. The mid-point of $69.5 billion is quite a bit below the $73.79 billion analyst expectation.
EPS: $5.75 v. 3.14 estimated, according to Refinitiv
Revenue: $56.6 billion vs $57.10 billion estimated, according to Refinitiv
AWS revenue: $6.7 billion vs $6.7 billion estimated, according to FactSet
The company gave fourth-quarter revenue guidance in the range of $66.5 billion and $72.5 billion, below street estimates of $73.79 billion.
Maybe if they didn't sit on my orders for days before shipping I would buy more stuff from them.
I bought a book from them lastweek. Came in damaged. Asked for a replacement. Replacement came in damaged. Called to complain. They said no problem, well do a better job protecting the book on the next replacement. Crickets....they ran out of the book.
Their logistics has gone down a lot over the last year.
I bought a book from them lastweek. Came in damaged. Asked for a replacement. Replacement came in damaged. Called to complain. They said no problem, well do a better job protecting the book on the next replacement. Crickets....they ran out of the book.
Their logistics has gone down a lot over the last year.
Who delivered it, UPS, FedEX, USPS, or Amazon courier?
I bought a book from them lastweek. Came in damaged. Asked for a replacement. Replacement came in damaged. Called to complain. They said no problem, well do a better job protecting the book on the next replacement. Crickets....they ran out of the book.
Their logistics has gone down a lot over the last year.
x100000..... Three out of my last 5 packages have been lost or say delivered and never were actually delivered. I thought it was just my luck, but it may not be. I've had maybe 3 packages lost in the last decade of ordering from them prior to this.
Reports loss of $0.18 per share vs estimates for loss of $0.22 -- beat
Revenue: $150.621 million (down 28.5% from $210.638 million a year ago) vs estimates for $160.3 million -- miss
Customers: 646,000 . . . down from 856,000 a year ago (Q3 2017) and 717,000 in Q2 2018
Orders: 2,647. . . down from 3,605 a year ago and 3,122 in Q2 2018
Average Order Value: $56.79 . . . down from $58.16 a year ago and $57.34 in Q2 2018
Orders Per Customer: 4.1 . . . down from 4.2 a year ago and 4.4 in Q2 2018
ARPU: $233 . . . down from $245 a year ago and $250 in Q2 2018
Blue Apron Says It Would Sacrifice Revenue Growth in 2019; Shares Tumble
Nov. 14, 2018, at 10:20 a.m.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blue Apron Holdings Inc said on Wednesday it would sacrifice overall revenue growth and cut marketing expenses in 2019, sending shares into volatile decline.
The forecast comes a day after the meal-kit delivery company reported a steep decline in net revenue for the third quarter, down 28.4 percent at $150.6 million, missing average analyst forecast of $160.3 million, according to Refinitiv data.
Blue Apron also announced late Tuesday plans to cut its workforce by 4 percent.
The New York-based company has been struggling to boost sales as it faces intense competition not only from peers like HelloFresh SE , but also from grocers selling their own ready-to-eat meals. The entry of Amazon.com Inc into grocery service and meal kits business has added to pressure.
Meal-kit company hasn’t turned a profit since going public in 2017
Nov. 13, 2018
Blue Apron Holdings Inc. said it would lay off more workers, as the meal-kit company struggles to turn a profit.
The New York-based company on Tuesday said it would lay off around 4%, or around 100 jobs, out of its workforce of roughly 2,500. The majority of workers are salaried, and the job cuts don’t impact warehouse employees, officials said.
The layoffs would cut costs by $16 million. Blue Apron said it would pay out in its fourth-quarter roughly $1.6 million in severance payments related to the layoffs.
The layoffs were “across the whole organization” chief executive Brad Dickerson said in an interview.
Blue Apron’s shares dropped roughly 2% after-hours. The stock is down about 70% this year, as the meal-kit pioneer has shed customers and fought operational problems at a new factory. The company hasn’t turned a profit since going public last year.
I bought a book from them lastweek. Came in damaged. Asked for a replacement. Replacement came in damaged. Called to complain. They said no problem, well do a better job protecting the book on the next replacement. Crickets....they ran out of the book.
Their logistics has gone down a lot over the last year.
Are You Ready for an Amazon-Branded Checking Account?
March 5, 2018
Amazon.com Inc. is in talks with big banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. about building a checking-account-like product the e-commerce giant could offer its customers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The effort is still in its early stages and may not come to fruition, the people said. The talks with financial firms are focused on creating a product that would appeal to younger customers and those without bank accounts. Whatever its final form, the initiative wouldn’t involve Amazon becoming a bank, the people added.
Amazon trying to move deeper into the Fin Tech space. Just buy Square for $50 billion and be done with it.
Amazon Pay Accepted Here? Web Giant Aims to Put Digital Wallet in Stores
Nov. 21, 2018 5:40 a.m. ET
Amazon.com Inc. is gearing up to challenge Apple Inc. in the mobile-payments race.
The e-commerce giant is working to persuade brick-and-mortar merchants to accept its Amazon Pay digital wallet, according to people familiar with the matter, attempting to expand a service now used primarily for purchases online.
To start, the company is looking to work with gas stations, restaurants and other merchants that aren’t direct competitors, a person familiar with the matter said. Retailers that view Amazon as a threat could resist the effort, the people said.
The push to become a bigger player in consumer payments shows Amazon’s desire to further integrate itself into the lives of its customers. It isn’t clear exactly how customers would use Amazon Pay in stores: They could tap their phones at checkout, much the same way they use Apple Pay, or scan a code on their phones, among other options. Apple says Apple Pay was accepted at more than five million in-store locations in the U.S. as of May, and the number of merchants accepting its wallet is growing.
U.S. consumers have been slow to adopt digital wallets, which were responsible for less than 1% of all U.S. card transactions last year, according to the Nilson Report. Amazon is looking to Asia, where digital wallets and mobile-payment apps like Alipay and WeChat Pay are commonly used. Amazon executives want to gobble up the U.S. market while the competition remains fairly minimal, according to people familiar with their thinking.
Amazon is offering incentives such as lower payment-processing fees or marketing services to entice merchants to accept its digital wallet, according to people familiar with the matter.
Lower payment-processing costs could be a convincing pitch. Rising interchange, or swipe, fees, account for a big chunk of those costs and are a point of tension between retailers and credit-card companies. Card networks including Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. set the fees, which merchants pay to banks and other issuers when consumers use their cards to shop.
Currently, shoppers can use their Amazon accounts to check out at a small number of Amazon’s brick-and-mortar locations, such as Amazon Go and its bookstores, and a growing number of online merchants accept Amazon Pay, its third-party service. Amazon Pay stores credit- and debit-card numbers, allowing shoppers to skip the step of typing in their account information at checkout and making them more likely to complete purchases.
During the 12 months through March 2018, some 14% of U.S. online shoppers used Amazon Pay outside of Amazon.com to make at least one online or mobile payment, down slightly from a year earlier, according to a survey from Bernstein Research.
Amazon has been exploring ways to get customers to use Amazon Pay at Whole Foods, the grocery chain it purchased in 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year.
Amazon also is working to make Alexa, its virtual assistant, an in-store payments platform, people familiar with the matter said. For example, a customer paying for gas could tell the Alexa voice assistant in the car to use Amazon Pay.
Blue Apron skirts standard-accounting rules to claim profitability
Jan 15, 2019
Meal-kit provider Blue Apron Holdings Inc.‘s shares rocketed 38% on Tuesday, after the company said it is confident it can achieve a version of profitability this year. The recipe for the stock’s turnaround may be mostly accounting.
The rosy outlook for the first quarter and year is dependent on an adjusted, non-standard method of accounting that ignores chronic losses and declining revenue. By standard accounting, called GAAP, for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the results have been dismal, pushing the stock down 60% in the last 12 months.
New York-based Blue Apron said it “plans to reaffirm confidence in achieving profitability on an adjusted EBITDA basis both in the first quarter of 2019 and for full year 2019 as it actively pursues the appropriate strategies to create value for its stakeholders.”
EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, is already an adjusted number, one that is often used as a measure of cash flow. The company said its redefined “adjusted EBITDA” also eliminates share-based compensation expense as well as interest income (expense), net, other operating expense, other income (expense), net, benefit (provision) for income taxes and depreciation and amortization.
The exclusion of share-based compensation is likely because the company says it “has recently been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense for the company’s business and an important part of its compensation strategy.”
In its latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said stock-based compensation rose to $13.6 million in the nine months to end September from $8.8 million in the year-earlier period. That company posted a net loss of $33.9 million for the quarter, equal to 18 cents a share, that compared with a loss of $87.2 million, or 47 cents a share in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell to $150.6 million from $210.6 million.
Tom Selling, a professor emeritus at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and author of the Accounting Onion blog, said EBITDA would not be the first measure of interest to him regarding Blue Apron.
“What I would want to know with a company like this is what is their revenue,” he told MarketWatch. “Maybe traders today are filling in the blanks differently than I would.”
Blue Apron Chief Executive Brad Dickerson said adjusted EBITDA is a commonly used metric and that removing non-cash stock-based compensation was a way of showing investors underlying cash flow. It’s a non-cash charge that companies often strip out and the context was to show an improvement in the underlying business.
Asked if it was potentially misleading to tell investors the company would be profitable based on one non-standard metric, he said he “couldn’t disagree more,” and that the company was “reiterating messaging from November,” when it released third-quarter earnings.
Blue Apron said in Tuesday’s press release it was offering the non-GAAP metric because it is unable to reconcile guidance to GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, at this time. It offered the forecast ahead of the release of fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 31 and accompanying conference call.
Amazon earnings: The e-commerce giant has a history of missing expectations in the holiday quarter
Jan 31, 2019
Earnings: FactSet expects earnings per share of $5.65, up from $2.16 last year. Estimize expects EPS of $5.81. Amazon has beat FactSet earnings expectations the last five quarters.
Revenue: FactSet expects revenue of $71.88 billion, up from $60.45 billion last year. Estimize expects revenue of $72.03 billion. Amazon missed revenue expectations the last two quarters.
Other things to watch for:
Strong holiday sales: Holiday sales were the strongest in six years, according to Mastercard Inc. data, with online sales up 19.1% from the year before.
Based on proprietary data, Stifel analysts estimate that more than half of U.S. households have an Amazon Prime account. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Inc. puts the number at 101 million.
“We believe the record holiday season for U.S. e-commerce, strong Prime membership growth, and investments in free shipping bode well for Amazon’s retail business in 4Q,” Stifel wrote in a note.
.
Ad business on the rise: “We see significant growth potential from Amazon’s advertising business over the next several years as the company leverages its valuable consumer data/traffic volume to provide sellers and brands with more tools to effectively reach consumers,” wrote Stifel analysts.
Stifel analysts suggested in an Oct. 31, 2018 note that investor focus should shift to gross profit growth and away from revenue because of a “business mix shift” as Amazon’s cloud and advertising businesses gain prominence, and third-party retail sales volume increases.
Susquehanna Financial Group analysts say their checks indicate continued momentum in 2019 as ad spend increases, advertising technology improves, and the company makes key new hires from large agencies on the sales side.
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Amazon Go is retail of the future: RBC Capital Markets analysts think retail will be transformed by Amazon’s cashier-less Go stores. There are currently nine Go stores in San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, according to the Amazon website, with one more to come in Chicago in 2019.
RBC analysts estimate that each Go store is making between $1.10 million and $1.95 million annually.
“Overall, current Go store sales are not material to Amazon in any way, but what is important here is market opportunity,” analysts wrote.
RBC quotes media reports that Amazon is considering 3,000 more stores by 2021, including in airports.
Trying to break above the 100 and 200 day moving average
Operating cash flow increased 67% to $30.7 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $18.4 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2017. Free cash flow increased to $19.4 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $8.3 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2017. Free cash flow less lease principal repayments increased to $11.6 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.3 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2017. Free cash flow less finance lease principal repayments and assets acquired under capital leases increased to an inflow of $8.4 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with an outflow of $1.5 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2017.
Fourth Quarter 2018
Net sales increased 20% to $72.4 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $60.5 billion in fourth quarter 2017. Excluding the $801 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 21% compared with fourth quarter 2017.
Operating income increased to $3.8 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with operating income of $2.1 billion in fourth quarter 2017.
Net income increased to $3.0 billion in the fourth quarter, or $6.04 per diluted share, compared with net income of $1.9 billion, or $3.75 per diluted share, in fourth quarter 2017. The fourth quarter 2017 included a provisional tax benefit for the impact of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 of approximately $789 million.
Full Year 2018
Net sales increased 31% to $232.9 billion, compared with $177.9 billion in 2017. Excluding the $1.3 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year, net sales increased 30% compared with 2017.
Operating income increased to $12.4 billion, compared with operating income of $4.1 billion in 2017.
Net income increased to $10.1 billion, or $20.14 per diluted share, compared with net income of $3.0 billion, or $6.15 per diluted share, in 2017.
First Quarter 2019 Guidance
• Net sales are expected to be between $56 billion and $60 billion, or to grow between 10% and 18% compared with
first quarter 2018. This guidance anticipates an unfavorable impact of approximately 210 basis points from foreign
exchange rates.
• Operating income is expected to be between $2.3 billion and $3.3 billion, compared with $1.9 billion in first quarter 2018.
Amazon has never made this much money. Revenue jumped 20% year over year to $72.45 billion for the holiday quarter while operating income surged by 78% to about $3.8 billion. For the full year, Amazon earned more than three times as much as the previous year.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s growth rate remains unmatched for its size, with full-year sales jumping 31% to $232.9 billion. Even though it is losing some steam, Amazon will surpass Apple Inc. in annual revenue this year.
But deceleration has been something Amazon’s investors have long feared. The fourth quarter’s 20% growth rate is the company’s slowest since early 2015. Even the 45% growth pace of the company’s red-hot AWS cloud business is down from 49% just two quarters earlier.
>> Whole Foods purchase not a complete bust after all
Amazon reports declining sales from physical stores, but there's a caveat
Jan 31, 2019
Amazon.com Inc. broke down the annual growth of its emerging physical stores business for the first time Thursday – and sales are declining.
Sales at Amazon's physical stores dropped three percent in Q4 2018 over the same period in 2017 to $4.4 billion.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said there were a “couple of caveats" behind the rare drop in Amazon sales figures.
The first had to do with shifting Whole Foods Market to Amazon's fiscal year following the $13.7 billion acquisition of the high-end grocer in August 2017.
"It added a few extra days to (Whole Foods) sales in 2017, so there’s a negative comparison on that element to 2017," he said.
The second caveat speaks to the strength of Amazon's emerging grocery delivery and pickup business.
"That gets counted in our online sales," he said. "If you adjust for that, sales out of Whole Foods were actually up six percent for the quarter."
Olsavsky did not comment on what role Amazon Go stores played in the drop in physical stores sales.
Amazon said on Monday that it's acquiring Eero, a developer of internet routers that can be easily connected in the home. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Amazon will move forward with plans in Virginia and Nashville and will hire at other tech hubs
Feb. 14, 2019
Amazon.com Inc. is abandoning its plans to build a new headquarters in New York City after the company faced stiff resistance from some local politicians who objected to giving one of the world’s most valuable companies billions of dollars in tax incentives.
The company said in a blog post Thursday that its commitment to a new headquarters required supportive elected officials and collaboration.
“While polls show that 70% of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,” the company said.
The decision to abandon its new headquarters in Long Island City marks a stunning reversal. Amazon spent a year conducting a public search for a second headquarters, in which hundreds of locations vied for a shot at a promised 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment.
In November, Amazon decided to split its so-called HQ2 operations between Virginia and New York, partly to ensure it could recruit enough tech talent.
Amazon said it won’t reopen its headquarters search. It will continue to add jobs at its other headquarters location in Northern Virginia, as well as offices in Nashville and other tech hubs around the country, the company said. Amazon said it has more than 5,000 people in New York City already and would continue adding to those teams.
Behind the scenes, Amazon executives have focused on expanding in places where the company is wanted, according to people familiar with the matter—particularly in light of the flak the company has taken in Seattle from residents and local politicians over transportation, housing and other issues.
As the chorus of objections built in New York, executives decided to cut their losses.
. . .
Amazon faced criticism from some local officials, who questioned granting the company $3 billion in state and city tax incentives.
Cracks in the process appeared last week as Amazon executives started re-evaluating the planned campus in New York City. Discussions with Amazon had led some government officials to worry the company might abandon its plans to create 25,000 jobs and invest $2.5 billion in New York’s Long Island City neighborhood.
Of particular concern to some inside Amazon was last week’s nomination of New York state Sen. Mike Gianaris, a vocal opponent of the deal, to a state board that would have allowed him to veto the development plan, people familiar with the matter have said. Mr. Gianaris needs to be approved for the post by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“Wow,” Mr. Gianaris said immediately after the news broke.
The governor and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, fellow Democrats who have often clashed, led the deal to woo Amazon and have continued to support it.
Local officials, though, questioned everything from the project’s impact on transportation to neighborhood gentrification, as well as Amazon’s opposition to unionization.
Amazon’s Ad Business May Be Growing Faster Than Thought
Feb. 20, 2019
Amazon.com Inc.’s ad business is again outstripping earlier projections.
Last September, the research firm eMarketer said Amazon would finish 2018 as the third-largest digital ad seller in the U.S., with a larger market share than eMarketer expected just six months earlier, partly due to accounting changes by the e-commerce giant.
EMarketer has once more increased its estimates for Amazon’s U.S. ad revenue for both past and future years. This time the boost is due partly to third-party data indicating that advertising provides more of Amazon’s revenue than was thought, said Monica Peart, senior forecasting director at eMarketer.
EMarketer now estimates that Amazon’s ad revenue in 2017 totaled $3.3 billion, for example, up from its estimate of $1.9 billion in September.
Amazon generates advertising revenue from various business units, including its e-commerce site, the live-streaming videogaming site Twitch, film site IMDb and its advertising technology division.
Amazon’s ad revenue is expected to increase to $15 billion in 2020, or just under 10% of the digital ad market share in the U.S., from $11.3 billion in 2019 and an 8.8% share, according to the latest forecast.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. will continue to dominate the digital ad pie, with a combined $88.25 billion in ad revenue in the U.S. in 2020, according to eMarketer’s predictions. But Amazon’s accelerating rise is giving marketers hope of an alternative to the so-called digital duopoly, although some fear Amazon’s growing power.
EMarketer increased its estimate for Facebook’s U.S. ad revenue for 2019 by about $1 billion, due to strong growth from Instagram as advertisers increase investments in the platform, said Ms. Peart.
Reports are more consistent for Google and Facebook, where advertising accounts for the bulk of revenue and both companies report their advertising revenues directly. Amazon reports a revenue category that includes advertising, but not the advertising dollars themselves.
As marketers allocate more dollars to digital video and social platforms to reach consumers, digital ad spending is usurping traditional ad spending in mediums like television, radio, print and outdoor, Ms. Peart said.
Digital ad spending in the U.S. is expected to grow 19% to $129.3 billion this year, according to eMarketer, accounting for 54.2% of total U.S. ad spending and surpassing traditional ad spending for the first time.
Amazon.com Inc. is planning to open dozens of grocery stores in several major U.S. cities, according to people familiar with the matter, as the retail giant looks to broaden its reach in the food business.
The company plans to open its first grocery store in Los Angeles as early as the end of the year, one person said. Amazon has already signed leases for at least two other grocery locations with openings planned for early next year, this person said.
The new stores would be distinct from the company’s upscale Whole Foods Market brand, though it is unclear whether the new grocery chain would carry the Amazon name.
Amazon is also exploring an acquisition strategy to widen the new supermarket brand by purchasing regional grocery chains with about a dozen stores under operation, one person said.
Amazon is now in talks to open grocery stores in shopping centers in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, the people familiar with the matter said.
The new stores aren’t intended to compete directly with Whole Foods and will offer products at a lower price point, these people said. The new chain would offer a different variety of products than what is on the shelves at the more upscale Whole Foods stores.
Whole Foods doesn’t sell products with artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and sweeteners, among other quality standards. Suppliers with big brands have hoped that Amazon’s 2017 purchase of Whole Foods would give them new inroads into the high-end chain.
Whole Foods has gradually expanded the big brands it carries—such as Honey-Nut Cheerios and Michelob beer—but the grocer’s quality standards haven’t changed. A conventional grocer can carry a much larger assortment of items.
Amazon is also increasingly focused on physical retail. It has had mixed results with its food-delivery business, and the company wants to better understand how it can cater to grocery shoppers, according to people briefed on the company’s strategy.
Supermarket operators Walmart Inc., Kroger Co. and others are also trying to find ways to offer delivery and pick-up to customers in a more cost-efficient manner.
After The Wall Street Journal reported news of Amazon’s plans, the stocks of other supermarket operators fell, with Kroger dropping 3.6% on the day, Walmart down 1% and Sprouts Farmers Markets Inc. losing 1.1%. Amazon rose 1.4%.
Amazon’s new grocery brand also comes as the retailer rolls out its cashierless Amazon Go stores in urban areas across the U.S. The company has 10 Amazon Go stores in Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco, according to the Amazon website.
Amazon has been targeting new developments and occupied stores with leases ending soon. It could also look at a portion of a vacated Kmart, for instance, a person familiar with the matter said. Stores in the new grocery brand could be in strip centers as well as open-air shopping centers, the people said. They will be about 35,000 square feet, smaller than the 60,000 square feet for a typical supermarket, they said.
Amazon has asked for more flexibility in lease negotiations, these people said. The company doesn’t want restrictions on the type of goods it may sell at its stores and wants the ability to change the store and sell health and beauty products for instance, said the people. Traditional leases in shopping centers often include limitations so that businesses complement rather than cannibalize each other.
It is unclear if these grocery stores will also be cashierless, but they will be heavily tilted to customer service and pick-up capabilities, according to the people familiar with the matter. Amazon is also looking to have some control over the attached parking lot, which would allow shoppers to get their groceries within a 10-to-15-minute time frame, the people said.
Some analysts say a strategy where big retailers combine e-commerce with physical stores is the direction the industry is heading.
Blue Apron’s chief executive and a co-founder are leaving the company, passing the baton to a former Etsy Inc. executive, as the meal-kit company works to turn a profit and add customers.
Bradley Dickerson, who joined the meal-kit company in 2016 from Under Armour Inc., will be succeeded as CEO next week by Linda Kozlowski, Etsy’s former chief operating officer.
Ms. Kozlowski, 45 years old, takes over the New York-based company on April 8. Her starting salary was set at $250,000 a year, and she will receive $3 million in stock awards.
Mr. Dickerson, the company said, will stay on as an adviser through the end of the year. He will receive nearly $500,000, paid out in 12 monthly installments.
Ilia Papas, Blue Apron’s chief technology officer, will be stepping down in May. He is the last of the three founders to hold an executive position. As part of his leaving the company, Mr. Papas will be paid about $157,500, the equivalent of six months of his current salary, the company said.
The company, which went public in 2017, has seen its valuation crumble, as its performance stumbled. Its IPO was priced at $10 a share, but the stock has largely traded below that price.
Blue Apron’s customer base dropped to about 557,000 as of Dec. 31, compared with about 746,000 a year earlier and more than a million two years ago. At its peak, in March 2017, Blue Apron reported more than a million customers.
The company, which is slated to report first-quarter results this month, on Tuesday affirmed its guidance for the quarter and year, including achieving profitability on an adjusted basis.
In January, it forecast that its first-quarter loss would more than halve to a range of $11 million to $14 million, from the roughly $32 million it reported in the year-ago period, and said its net loss for the year would “significantly improve” from 2018.
Must be nice to still get nearly $500,000 for running the company into the ground.
Jeff Bezos' ex-wife cedes control of Amazon in divorce deal
April 4, 2019
(Reuters) - MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon.com Inc founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, will give 75 percent of their stake in the company and all voting rights to the billionaire entrepreneur as part of their divorce settlement. MacKenzie Bezos will also relinquish all her interests in the Washington Post newspaper and rocket company Blue Origin, she said in a tweet on Thursday.
The announcement resolves questions about the direction of the world’s largest online retailer that have abounded since the couple announced their divorce in January. Jeff Bezos, widely viewed as a management guru whose long-term focus has been essential to Amazon’s meteoric stock rise, will retain company control.
The settlement also suggests that Amazon will be spared the kind of boardroom battle that has plagued other companies whose owners are dealing with family rifts.
“Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75 percent of our Amazon stock,” MacKenzie Bezos said in the tweet.
The agreement still leaves MacKenzie Bezos with vast wealth. Her remaining stake in Amazon, valued at roughly $36 billion, is worth more than the stock market values of nearly 70 percent of the components of the S&P 500. That includes companies like eBay Inc, Allstate Corp and Twitter Inc.
The couple’s total stake of $143 billion had made them the richest in the world.
“Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness, and looking forward to next phase as co-parents and friends,” MacKenzie Bezos wrote.
Jeff Bezos re-tweeted the statement and added in a separate post that he was grateful to MacKenzie “for her support and for her kindness in this process.”
Kohl's Surges on Deal to Expand Amazon Ties in Return Policy
April 23, 2019
Kohl’s Corp. shares jumped the most in almost four months after the company said it will begin accepting returns for Amazon.com Inc. customers at all of its stores starting in July, expanding a program it started in 2017.
The department store chain began offering the free service as a pilot program that grew to 100 stores in the Los Angeles, Chicago and Milwaukee markets. Now it will increase to its more than 1,150 locations, the retailer said Tuesday.
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Kohl’s also issued a warrant to an Amazon investment arm to let it buy as many as 1.75 million shares of Kohl’s stock. The warrant vests over a multiyear period starting in January 2020, according to a filing. Amazon didn’t return a request for comment.
Kohl’s last month also said it would expand its relationship with the e-commerce giant by carrying Amazon-branded products in more than 200 stores.
EPS: $7.09 vs $4.70 (FactSet), $4.72 (Refinitiv) estimate -- HUGE beat
Rev: $59.7 billion vs $59.70 billion (FactSet and Refinitiv) estimate -- match
AWS: $7.7 billion vs $7.7 billion -- match
So revenue came in at higher end of their guidance for revenue between $56 billion and $60 billion, so they kinda UPOD
Cash generating machine.
Operating cash flow increased 89% to $34.4 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $18.2 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2018. Free cash flow increased to $23.0 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $7.3 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2018. Free cash flow less principal repayments of finance leases and financing obligations increased to $15.1 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.1 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2018. Free cash flow less equipment finance leases and principal repayments of all other finance leases and financing obligations increased to an inflow of $11.8 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with an outflow of $3.0 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2018.
Net sales increased 17% to $59.7 billion in the first quarter, compared with $51.0 billion in first quarter 2018. Excluding the $1.1 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 19% compared with first quarter 2018.
Operating income increased to $4.4 billion in the first quarter, compared with operating income of $1.9 billion in first quarter 2018.
Net income increased to $3.6 billion in the first quarter, or $7.09 per diluted share, compared with net income of $1.6 billion, or $3.27 per diluted share, in first quarter 2018.
They can turn on the profit and cash flow spigot whenever they want.
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• Net sales are expected to be between $59.5 billion and $63.5 billion, or to grow between 13% and 20% compared with second quarter 2018. This guidance anticipates an unfavorable impact of approximately 150 basis points from foreign exchange rates.
• Operating income is expected to be between $2.6 billion and $3.6 billion, compared with $3.0 billion in second quarter 2018.
Revenue mid-point of $61.5 billion below analyst expectations for $62.39 billion (FactSet), $62.37 billion (Refinitiv)
Amazon’s revenue came to a slowdown across the board. It’s total revenue grew 16.9% compared to the year-ago period, representing the slowest expansion since the first-quarter of 2015. Its North American revenue saw 17% increase, compared to last year’s 46% growth, while international growth dropped to just 9%, down from the previous year’s 34% growth rate.
Amazon’s advertising business, which is looped under the “other” category, significantly slowed down, seeing only 34% revenue growth to $2.7 billion, after growing at least 60% in the past five quarters.
Amazon’s cloud service, meanwhile, continued its solid growth with a 41% sales increase, although that was also a deceleration from last year’s 49% growth rate.
Investors, however, are seeing more profitability from Amazon in exchange. Net income hit a record $3.6 billion, and its operating profit of $4.4 billion represented a record 7.4% margin.
The wider margins come from growth in businesses like cloud, advertising and third-party seller services, where profits are bigger but total sales are smaller.
Berkshire Hathaway has been buying shares of Amazon, Warren Buffett says
“One of the fellows in the office that manage money ... bought some Amazon so it will show up in the 13F” later this month, Buffett told CNBC Thursday, on the eve of the kick off of Berkshire’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha. Buffett was referring to either Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, who each manage portfolios of more than $13 billion in equities for Berkshire.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway on Wednesday revealed in a government filing the size of its stake in e-commerce giant Amazon.
May 15 2019
Berkshire’s stake in Amazon was 483,300 shares at the end of the quarter ended March 31, according to a filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The value of that stake was $904 million by the closing bell Wednesday afternoon.
Buffett first disclosed the new investment in Amazon to CNBC on May 2, a day before Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha. The size of the position, however, had not previously been reported to the public.
The renowned value investor — though a fan of Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos — also told CNBC earlier this month that he isn’t responsible for Berkshire’s investment.
“One of the fellows in the office that manage money ... bought some Amazon so it will show up in the 13F,” Buffett said on May 2. Buffett was likely referring to one of his two lieutenants, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, who each manage portfolios of more than $13 billion in equities for Berkshire.
“Yeah, I’ve been a fan, and I’ve been an idiot for not buying” Amazon shares, Buffett said at the time. “But I want you to know it’s no personality changes taking place.”
09-04-2018, 10:45 AM
Jul $1.00 puts are only $0.25
It offered the forecast ahead of the release of fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 31 and accompanying conference call.
