Why wouldn’t it be?
Amazon accounts for about 52% of all online retail sales in the U.S. and its performance acts as a barometer for total online sales growth for the United States.
The most recent sales report for Amazon was for Q1 (January to March) 2019. Net sales increased 17% to $59.7 billion in the first quarter, compared with $51.0 billion in first quarter of 2018. Gone are the days when Amazon was growing at 200%, 100% or even 40%. The base is inevitably large now but what really is happening at Amazon?
There are charts out there that compare the Deutsche Bank stock price to the Lehman Brothers stock price. Here’s a long-term Deutsche Bank stock price chart,
Continue reading “Is Deutsche Bank really the next Lehman Brothers?”
The S & P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 hit all time highs in early October and since then they have fallen about 10% each. The S & P 500 has turned negative for the year and the NASDAQ 100 has barely moved. FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google/Alphabet) stocks accounted for almost all the 2018 gains until October. And their fall has caused the market meltdown but there is more to the story …
“Go for a business that any idiot can run – because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.” ― Peter Lynch
Credit Rating(s) cut, quarterly dividend virtually eliminated from 12 cents to a penny, new CEO (again), new strategy, $5 billion in underfunded pensions …
Amazon declared its Q3 results on Thursday, Net sales increased 29% to $56.6 billion in the third quarter, compared with $43.7 billion in the third quarter of 2017. Excluding the unfavourable impact of foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 30% compared with third quarter 2017.
Operating income increased to $3.7 billion in the third quarter, compared with operating income of $347 million in the third quarter of 2017.
Amazon’s share price has soared 500% in the past four years despite the recent 20% fall in the share price.
Restricted Stock Units (RSU) are company stock (or shares by another name) granted to employees as a form of compensation. Employers save some tax, and it generally aligns the long-term interest of employees (and shareholders) as it normally carries a vesting period. 2017 was great for technology company share prices and technology companies granted an eye-watering amount of Restricted Stock Units by value leaving banks way behind …
Corporations (non-financial) in the United States have $6.2 trillion in debt and debt has doubled in the past decade,
Continue reading “Corporate debt is soaring in the U.S. even as corporate bond yields are rising”
Spotify’s direct listing
As reported earlier, Spotify listed directly on the NYSE today at an opening price of $165.90, the stock ended the first day of trading in New York at $149.01, up from the reference price of $132 set yesterday by the NYSE.
Spotify has offered a streaming service since 2008 and has 159 million monthly active users including 71 million paid subscribers globally. It generated €4 billion (about $5billion) in revenues last year, up over 40% from 2016, and a €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) net loss compared with about €542 million ($664 million) in 2016. The company’s average revenue per user has declined from €6.84 in 2015 to €5.32 in 2017 as it promotes its “Family Plan” which allows several users to share one account. Analyst reckon that Apple Music will overtake Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in under 2 years, yet the company is now valued at $28 billion (5.6 times revenues). Continue reading “Spotify’s direct listing (and comparison to Netflix); ECB sells bond after spotting an error after 2 years; Nomura to hire fewest graduates in five years as it spends more on robots”
Alphabet Inc. spent the most as a company (not an association or business group) on lobbying in 2017. Amazon and Facebook too saw an increase in lobbying spend in 2017.
