Amazon.com (AMZN) is without a doubt one of the most monothetic American corporations to ever exist. With humble origins in the book-selling business, the online retailer quickly rose to steamroller status thanks to an incredible business model and savvy CEO.

Amazon has now entered nearly every market in the retail sector, which gives it massive amounts of money. Though, of course, that’s at the expense of mom-and-pop stores and even mega-consumer corporations like Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT).

That doesn’t bother Amazon one bit though (not to say that it necessarily should). It’s always seeking to expand further.

Its newest proposed venture is in the healthcare space, specifically by buying out One Medical – a subsidiary of 1Life Healthcare (ONEM) for $3.9 billion. That will give it access to more than 180 medical offices across the U.S. for better or worse.

Obviously, the enormous online engine thinks this will be for the best. Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services said:

“We think healthcare is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention. We see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days.

“We love inventing to make what should be easy easier and we want to be one of the companies that helps dramatically improve the healthcare experience over the next several years.”

Amazon has ventured into the online prescription drug world before, mind you. But this will be its first foray into face-to-face physical care.

As-is, One Medical offers both in-person patient care and virtual doctor appointments in 25 U.S. markets with around 767,000 members. Yet it recorded a $90.9 million net loss in Q1 despite making $254.1 million in revenue.

That reflects a roughly 77% premium of where ONEM shares closed on Wednesday… though hardly where it closed on Thursday, up 69.45% to $17.25.

Amazon, for its part, rose only slightly. Though that’s to be expected considering how big it already is.

The price you pay for such massive success, I suppose.

More Non-REIT New To Know About 

As inflation becomes increasingly intense, Americans have seen some of the most extreme measures to curb costs since the early eighties. But we’re hardly alone in this struggle.

Yesterday, the European Central Bank announced it will raise its key interest rate by a half-percentage point. If that sounds hardly blog-worthy, understand that this is the first time it’s raised rates since 2011.

That’s a big deal by a big-deal establishment. The ECB serves as the prime component of the Euro-system and European System of Central Banks. It’s also one of seven institutions of the European Union.

Basically then, it helps to set monetary policy across Europe. So its president, Christine Lagarde, saying the following is, again, a big deal:

“Inflation continues to be undesirably high and is expected to stay above our target for some time. From now on, we will make our monetary policy decisions on a data-dependent basis. We will operate month-by-month and step-by-step. What happens in September is going to depend on what data we have for September.”

The increase will take effect next week to try to quell the 9.6% inflation surge the EU saw in June. Welcome to the new global economic standard – it’s going to get interesting.

Pun intended.

The World According to REITs 

Amazon’s healthcare move got me thinking about a real estate investment trust (REIT) that’s long-since been in the business. That would be Physicians Realty Trust (DOC). 

The company owns premier healthcare properties, helping its clients achieve higher standards of care and quality service.

There are many reasons to like this REIT. Let’s begin with a rather generic one: how market exposure to the healthcare industry is a great way to build portfolio diversity and resilience.

More specifically, DOC’s $5.9 billion portfolio is built around tenants that maintain a credit rating of BBB− or higher. It carefully curates its clientele, net-leasing them medical offices that insulate it against rising ownership costs. Right now, 95% of its portfolio is leased, with 65% leased to investment-grade tenants.

(Incidentally, it will certainly be interesting to see if One Medical can meet that investment-grade criteria in the future. Could we see yet another partnership evolve?)

Another thing to like is DOC’s growth. Since its IPO in 2012, the REIT has gained about 15,600,000 square feet of space.

And it also maintains a conservative approach to managing its balance sheet, efficiently funding its acquisitions with a stable balance of debt and equity capital. Overall, when DOC opens its mouth up to say, “Ah…”

We’re willing to give it a pretty clean bill of health.

Author’s Note: If you do determine this stock is right for you, make sure to purchase it at a smart entry point. Even the best of companies can burn you badly if you buy in at inflated prices.

More By This Author:

More Real Estate Data to Digest – If You Can
Is Residential Real Estate on the Rocks?
Wall Street’s Workforce Crisis Should Be Taken Seriously