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Bezos Steps Down as Amazon (AMZN) CEO: Here's What You Should Know

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Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) is on the verge of a transition as the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, stepped down from the position of CEO on Jul 5. Bezos has been instrumental in shaping the company’s growth trajectory since its foundation.

Notably, Andy Jassy will be taking up the position of CEO. This transition was announced during fourth-quarter 2020 earnings release.

However, despite the departure of Bezos, the stock has managed toremain a favorite among the investors, courtesy of strong fundamentals, proper management execution and aggressive business expansion strategies.

Shares of Amazon have gained 7.8% on a year-to-date basis against the industry’s decline of 15%.

Further, Amazon has a remarkable earnings surprise history. It beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being180.8%. Also, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 61.95% in first-quarter 2021.

Additionally, the company’s 2021 earnings has moved north by 2.1% in the past 30 days to $57.42.

Also, the e-commerce giant has a Growth Score of A and a Momentum Score of B.

The odds in favor of an upside in the near term are quite high and consequently, investors looking for solid returns should watch the stock.

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Able Leadership of Jeff Bezos

Bezos’ stewardship of Amazon since its inception has been commendable. During his tenure of 27 years, the company has transformed from a small online book retailer to an e-commerce behemoth.

Moreover, Bezos can be credited for making Amazon the largest online retail platform on a global basis.

Bezos also led the company into the uncharted territories like cloud computing, video and music streaming, smart speaker and virtual assistant, home automation and smart home security, healthcare and wearable, autonomous driving, advertising, digital payments, and gaming markets.

Under his leadership, the company attained a market capitalization of $1.8 trillion. His departure remains unusual for Amazon.

Although Bezos is irreplaceable in Amazon, we believe his retirement is unlikely to have much impact on the stock price primarily due to the company’s strong fundamentals.

The company’s robust online retail platform, solid Prime momentum and strengthening cloud computing business are expected to continue driving growth in the near term. Further, its strategic acquisitions are likely to act as key catalysts.

Dominance in E-commerce Space

Amazon has been dominating the e-commerce domain with its aggressive retail strategy. Expanding seller base, robust distribution strength, strategic acquisitions and partnerships have helped the company sustain its market share despite intensifying competition.

Further, the acquisition of Whole Foods Market has helped the company to strengthen its footprint in the grocery retail market.

Additionally, growing momentum across Prime program remains a key catalyst. Amazon’s strong focus toward advancement of Prime services is acting as a tailwind. The company’s Prime enabled grocery delivery and pick-up services are constantly bolstering its footprint in the grocery retail space.

Also, the company’s same-day delivery, one-day shipping and other fast delivery services remain key growth drivers.
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Moreover, strengthening momentum across Amazon’s last-mile network of delivery driver partners is noteworthy. The company recently made its same-day delivery service free for orders above $35 in select cities of the United States.

Further, expanding movie and video content portfolio on Prime Video is another major positive that has been aiding the company in attracting shoppers to the Prime program.

Apart from this, Amazon’s strong focus on global expansion is a major positive. The company is striving hard to penetrate markets like India, Australia, UAE, Saudi Arabia and many more.

We believe strong Prime endeavors and growing retail initiatives are likely to continue aiding Amazon’s leading position in the e-commerce space. These initiatives are likely to keep the company ahead of the pack of retailers like Walmart (WMT - Free Report) , Target, Kroger and Costco Wholesale, which are also making every effort to bridge the gap.

Growing Cloud Business

The company continues to gain momentum in the rapidly growing cloud market on the back of its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (“AWS”).

This division has now become an integral segment of Amazon, thanks to its growing adoption rate and popularity. Further, AWS offers strong discounts for long-term deals and advance payments to its customers. This continues to help the company in expanding customer base.

Additionally, expanding AWS services portfolio will continue to bolster the company’s clientele. Recently, the company recently announced general availability of services like Amazon Location Service, AWS App Runner, Amazon Nimble Studio, AQUA for Amazon Redshiftand Amazon ECS Anywhere and its application delivery service, AWS Proton, to name a few.

We note that solid momentum across AWS has been aiding Amazon in generating high margins from the cloud business.

Further, robust AWS has been aiding Amazon’s dominance in the cloud space against others like Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL - Free Report) Google.

Conclusion

We believe that e-commerce will remain one of the primary growth drivers for Amazon, thanks to its growing momentum across third-party sellers, expanding fulfilment network and aggressive international expansion strategies.

Further, the company’s strengthening footprint in the international cloud market is encouraging. All these are likely to maintain Amazon’s solid momentum, makingit a prudent choice for investors.

Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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