On Tuesday, Donald Trump was elected to the office of 45th President of The United States of America. While many citizens either celebrated or protested this historic victory, Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos needed to back track on some of his previous comments about the President-Elect.
Bezos is the CEO of AMZN, which is currently trading at $738.39 per share. He also owns the Washington Post, a prestigious newspaper that he purchased in 2013 for $250 million. Both men have been exchanging words for over a year now over accusations made by Trump regarding Bezos' use of his newspaper company to get out of paying taxes. According to the President-Elect, "Amazon is getting away with murder tax-wise. He's using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed."
Trump's biggest problem with AMZN is that he believes Bezos is outsourcing too many jobs to overseas nations and taking jobs from Americans. As quoted in the Seattle Times, "Free trade fills the company's sails — as it builds a planetary network of warehouses, transportation and profitable data centers that are turning it into a truly global store. At the end of 2015, more than a third of Amazon's physical footprint was in countries other than the U.S., and about 32 percent of its retail sales were made overseas. Trump has also railed against the trade deals that facilitate some of that commerce, saying they're not advantageous enough to the U.S."
Throughout his campaign, Trump's biggest message was to "Make America Great Again," implying the attempt to make more jobs here domestically. Trump believes Bezos is getting away with paying little to no taxes and embarking on foreign trade agreements that aren’t benefiting anyone in the United States besides Amazon itself.
Even though there is no proof that Bezos or Amazon is indeed using the political reach of the Washington Post to avoid paying taxes, the fact Donald Trump was elected president caused Bezos to concede to the future leader. Bezos tweeted from his verified Twitter (TWTR) account: "Congratulations to @RealDonaldTrump I for one give him my most open mind and wish him great success in his service to the country."
This came after AMZN stock has seen an immense drop in price over the past few days. Prior to the election results on Tuesday, November 8th at 3:40pm, AMZN was trading at $789.72. In just three days, the stock has dropped over $51 to its current price of $738.39. Stockholders are showing fear that Trump being elected will cause some major negative changes to the company. This explains why Bezos tweeted that positive message for the President-Elect; he needs to help protect his company’s well being.
Currently, AMZN is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM score of 'C.' Check back next week to see where the Zacks Rank grades AMZN.
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