Amazon Inches Closer To $1 Trillion Market Cap: ETFs In Focus
Online e-commerce behemoth Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) is heading toward $1-trillion market cap as its shares topped $2,000 for the first time. Shares of AMZN closed at $2,002.38 on Aug 29 and are just some dollars away from reaching 13-digit market capitalization. At $2,053 per share, Amazon will become the second U.S. trillion-dollar company after Apple (AAPL), which crossed the threshold on Aug 2.
Below, we have highlighted some solid reasons for the consistent surge:
Bullish Calls
Morgan Stanley (MS ) this week lifted Amazon’s price target from $1,850 per share to $2,500 per share, citing huge growth for the e-commerce giant's traditional retail as well as web service units. At $2,500 stock price, Amazon would have a market valuation of about $1.2 trillion. This represents the highest price target on the Wall Street. In fact, 31 of 47 analysts surveyed by FactSet have stock price targets above Amazon’s $1 trillion market cap threshold of $2,050.27.
According to Baron Capital analyst Ashim Mehra, Amazon could double its value to about $2 trillion in three to five years driven by growth in advertising revenue and its cloud business.
Further, options traders bet Amazon will hit $1 trillion by next week.
Earnings Strength
Amazon shares was also boosted by its solid Q2 earnings, wherein it delivered massive earnings beat of 103.61% and the biggest quarterly profit of $2.5 billion in its history, powered by the fast-growing cloud computing business and strength in online sales.
Earnings per share came in at $5.07, more than double the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.49 and up by a wide margin the year-ago earnings of 40 cents. Revenues climbed 39% year over year to $52.9 billion but fell short of the estimate of $53.4 billion. In particular, revenues from the cloud computing business — Amazon Web Services (AWS) — surged 49% year over year to $6.1 billion.
For the third quarter of 2018, the company expects revenues to grow 23-31% to $54-$57.5 billion.
Solid Fundamentals
Amazon has seen whopping earnings estimate revisions of $4.83 to $17.27 for this year over the past 60 days. This indicates substantial year-over-year growth of 279.6%. Revenues are expected to grow 32%.
Additionally, Amazon currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and has a Growth Score of A. However, it belongs to the bottom-ranked Zacks industry (bottom 21%).
ETFs to Tap
Given this, investors seeking to tap the bullishness in the tech titan could consider the following ETFs that have AMZN as the top firm in their portfolio:
Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY - Free Report) — The fund carries a Zacks ETF Rank #2 (Buy), with a Medium risk outlook. Amazon accounts for 25.2% share.
ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN - Free Report) - This fund debuted in the space on Jul 13 and has accumulated $15.9 million in its asset base. Amazon makes up for 24.2% in the fund’s basket.
Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) - This ETF has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 (Hold) with a Medium risk outlook. Amazon has 23.1% allocation.
iShares U.S. Consumer Services ETF (IYC - Free Report) — It carries a Zacks ETF Rank #2 with a Medium risk outlook. Here, AMZN takes 21.8% share.
VanEck Vectors Retail ETF (RTH - Free Report) — The fund has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 with a Medium risk outlook. Amazon makes up for 20.4% of the assets.
Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary Index ETF (FDIS - Free Report) – It has a Zacks ETF Rank #2 with a Medium risk outlook. Amazon makes up for 20.8% in the fund’s basket
iShares Global Consumer Discretionary ETF (RXI - Free Report) - AMZN accounts for 16.3% share in the basket.
iShares Evolved U.S. Discretionary Spending ETF (IEDI - Free Report) - This fund debuted in the space on Mar 21 and has accumulated $5.7 million in its asset base. Amazon has 12.1% allocation.
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