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Amazon Is Finally Profitable, Earns $2.5 Billion Over the Last Three Months (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes CNN:
Amazon topped $2 billion in quarterly profit for the first time in its history, an impressive run fueled by continued growth in Prime subscriptions, cloud computing and its nascent advertising business. Amazon said Thursday that it earned $2.5 billion in profit for the three months ending in June, a staggering jump from the $197 million it posted in the same period last year. It marked the third consecutive quarter that Amazon has topped $1 billion in profit, a remarkable feat for a company once known for investing so much in its business that it often lost money. "The profitability trajectory appears to be accelerating quicker than expected," Daniel Ives, an analyst with GBH Insights, wrote in an investor note Thursday. Ives called this a "potential game changer" as Amazon continues to invest heavily in fulfillment centers, new stores and pricey content deals....
Earlier this month, Amazon's market value topped $900 billion for the first time, putting it on the cusp of eclipsing Apple as the world's most valuable company.
Amazon's cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services, had $6 billion in sales, while Amazon's $119-a-year "Prime" service for faster shipping now has more than 100 million users.
Qwartz says the results -- which are over 12 times more than Amazon earned in the same quarter a year ago -- prove that Amazon "can make loads of money when it actually feels like it."
Earlier this month, Amazon's market value topped $900 billion for the first time, putting it on the cusp of eclipsing Apple as the world's most valuable company.
Amazon's cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services, had $6 billion in sales, while Amazon's $119-a-year "Prime" service for faster shipping now has more than 100 million users.
Qwartz says the results -- which are over 12 times more than Amazon earned in the same quarter a year ago -- prove that Amazon "can make loads of money when it actually feels like it."
They have a better business model.
The lowest costs of labor are slavery and/or indentured servitude. As a society weâ(TM)ve decided those arenâ(TM)t fair and made laws to stop them.
If we want a better world we make laws to drive bad behavior out of business.
If you want amazon to pay its people more you raise the minimum wage to a livable wage and you increase taxes on rich people.
Those are not going to happen in this second gilded age.
I have no idea what is going to snap but the way things are going it seems unsustainable for it to continue unabated.
The employer match for SS&Medicare is 7.5%, not 15.
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Your ad here. Ask me how!
The summary mentioned $900 billion stock price on profit of $2.5/quarter, or $10 billion / year. So that's a multiple of 90 - saying the company is worth 90 times as much as it earns.
Amazon had revenue of $177 billion, so the stock price is five times revenue.
The ratios are important to investors - they tell you how much investors earn per dollar invested. For Amazon, every dollar invested means your share of profit is 11 cents.
Here are some comparisons to other companies.
General Mills: $16B revenue, $2.5B profit, $26B valuation. Ratios: 1.6 x revenue, 10x profit.
Hewlett Packard: $28B revenue, $3B earnings, $24B valuation. Ratios: 0.8x revenue, 8x earnings.
H&R Block $3B revenue, $0.8B earnings, $5B valuation
Ratio: 8x earnings, 2x revenue.
Charter Communications: $42B revenue, $8B earnings,
$65B valuation. Ratios: 8x earnings, 1.5x revenue
Macy's: $25B revenue, $1.5B earnings, $12B valuation. Ratios: 7.5x earnings, 0.5x revenue.
Kraft Heinz: $26B revenue, $11B earnings, $73B valuation. Ratios: 6.7x earnings, 2.8x revenue.
Tesla: $12B revenue, -$3B earnings, $51B stock valuation. Ratios: -17x earnings, 4x revenue.
So typically for an established company, for each dollar invested you should see about 12 cents profit. Tesla is of course the exception in the list. For each dollar invested, there was 25 cents lost.
Managers and those responsible for profit can be rewarded
Huh? Are you saying that the people who make the webshop and who actually handle the goods that I order -- the people doing the actual work -- are not responsible for making the profit? If so, why doesn't Amazon fire everyone who are not managers and above, because they are the only ones producing an income?
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
They are being totally underhanded with their prime subscriptions. For instance, upon buying a product I was given three choices; shipping, free two day shipping, or free two day shipping with Prime subscription. I took the free two day shipping but on completion of prchase there was a small box saying "Welcome to Prime" which I hadn't ordered so I clicked it to make sure I wasn't on Prime and it appeared to say I wasn't.....but I was suspicious so I dug into the settings and found I had been added to Prime free membership which would then start charging me monthly if I didn't unenroll before 30 days. So I unenrolled. Of course the product didn't arrive so I called the help line and was charged a dollar, hopefully sorted it out, and they added me to Prime again without my specific consent. I had to ask the operator about it and specify being removed again. As yet the product has not arrived.......
I reserve the write to mangle english.
Costco has a different business model. Very few employees, relatively few SKU’s, and no guarantee that you’ll be able to buy the same product next month. Also, no stores in poor or lightly populated areas. If they tried to be Walmart, they would end up looking like Walmart. It doesn’t scale like that.
Costco is great if there’s one nearby, and you have enough disposable income to ignore the membership fee. But if you’re in the middle of nowhere, tough. They’re not serving you. I can get to seven Walmarts in a half-hour. Two Sam’s Clubs. But the nearest Costco is three hours away.
People who can barely afford to feed and house themselves should buy shares in Amazon. What with?
Taxes doesn't pay salaries. So how do that make sense?
We don't have a minimum wage in Sweden or Norway.
We do have high taxes and welfare and public paid education though.
Why should the state remove jobs by setting a minimum wage?