AMZN - Amazon.com, Inc.
1,761.12 -6.26 (-0.35%)
After hours: 5:36PM EDT
| Previous close | 1,736.43 |
| Open | 1,742.14 |
| Bid | 1,767.62 x 800 |
| Ask | 1,768.84 x 2200 |
| Day's range | 1,740.71 - 1,776.45 |
| 52-week range | 1,307.00 - 2,035.80 |
| Volume | 2,928,128 |
| Avg. volume | 3,257,760 |
| Market cap | 874.245B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.63 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 73.32 |
| EPS (TTM) | 24.10 |
| Earnings date | 24 Oct 2019 |
| Forward dividend & yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-dividend date | N/A |
| 1y target est | 2,301.30 |
- Bloomberg
Elizabeth Warren Vows to Be First Nominee to Forgo High-Dollar Fundraisers
(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren pledged Tuesday to forgo any high-dollar fundraising events if she becomes the Democratic nominee, a move that would make her the first general-election candidate to do so and could be a high-stakes gamble against a cash-rich incumbent and a well-funded GOP apparatus.But Warren would still accept high-dollar contributions from most people who choose to write her a check without getting special access or seeing her in person. She also vowed to refuse to accept “any contributions over $200 from executives at big tech companies, big banks, private equity firms, or hedge funds.”Warren’s pledge also wouldn’t stop the party or super-PACs from raising vast amounts of money on her behalf. But it may stop wealthy donors from cutting big checks if they believe it won’t help them get access to the nominee.“When I’m the Democratic nominee for president, I’m not going to change a thing in how I run my campaign: No PACs. No federal lobbyists. No special access or call time with rich donors or big dollar fundraisers to underwrite my campaign,” Warren said in a statement released by her campaign.Still, some Democrats fear it would put the party at a huge fundraising disadvantage against President Donald Trump, who’s raking in vast sums of money from big donors by his own campaign and by super-PACs that support him.Rufus Gifford, the finance director for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, has said Warren’s earlier suggestions to avoid high-dollar events was “a colossally stupid decision” that would cost Democrats not only in the presidential contest but also in down-ballot races.But it also reflects her populist pitch to be a different kind of candidate who isn’t corrupted by special interest money, and so far she has proven adept at generating small-dollar contributions that are envied by her party rivals.A Warren campaign aide said the decision to accept no more than $200 from executives and big tech or financial firms was “retroactive” and any contributions above $200 from those people would be returned.The aide also said that big tech companies under this guideline will include Alphabet Inc., which is Google’s parent company; Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc.Nominees traditionally complain about the amount of time needed to raise money in a campaign and call for changes in financing presidential races, but then say they can’t “unilaterally disarm” against a well-funded opponent.Warren’s bet is that her pitch will propel her campaign in the Democratic contest -- where she’s tied with Joe Biden for the top spot -- and mobilize many of the estimated 100 million eligible voters who didn’t turn out in the 2016 election. Biden spends a significant amount of time raising money from traditional donor bases.It’s unclear how Warren’s pledge would apply to the Democratic National Committee, which can accept contributions from individuals of as much as $355,000 for various accounts, including $35,500 per donor that can be used to influence the election.And it wouldn’t apply to outside groups like super-PACs, which under federal law cannot coordinate their activities with campaigns. In 2016, Priorities USA had more than 30 individual donors who contributed more than $1 million.Obama barred contributions from registered lobbyists and corporate PACs. The DNC was outraised by its Republican counterpart in 2012 by almost $100 million, yet Obama, a popular incumbent, won overwhelmingly against rival Mitt Romney in the election. The party lifted the bans in 2016, and the DNC raised $354 million compared to $343 million for the Republican National Committee.Warren often highlights her approach to fundraising on the campaign trail, reassuring prospective voters that her campaign is fueled by them, not big dollar donors.“I don’t spend my time at fundraisers for bazilionaires and corporate executives,” Warren said during a town hall in Austin, Texas, last month. “I just don’t do it.”When asked whether her grassroots fundraising model could leave her without enough money to go against Trump in the general election, Warren was adamant that a flurry of contributions between $5 and $25 would be enough. Trump and the RNC raised $125 million in the first quarter, more than all of the major Democrats combined.“If you think it’s going to be all about scooping up a bunch of money from rich people, and then buying a bunch of TV ads, and that’s how it is someone’s gonna win, then, yeah, it looks like Trump’s doing a lot here,” Warren said recently in San Diego. “I just don’t think that’s how democracy works anymore. And I sure don’t think that’s how it’s going to work in 2020. I think it’s going to be about getting out and building a grassroots movement.”In his battle against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Bernie Sanders relied primarily on small-dollar donors to raise $235.4 million through the end of May 2016, nearly matching the $238.2 million she raised over the same period.But Clinton also had joint fundraising committees that raised millions for the Democratic National Committee and state parties.Trump is using the same arrangements to build a huge financial advantage over his rivals. His campaign and the RNC, plus a pair of joint fundraising committees that raise money for each, have taken more than $300 million through this year, according to Federal Election Commission reports and totals announced by Trump’s re-election effort.Warren has raised $60.2 million in the same period, including about $10 million she transferred from her Senate campaign.(Updates with Warren aide saying big tech donation policy was retroactive in eighth, ninth paragraphs.)To contact the reporters on this story: Sahil Kapur in Washington at skapur39@bloomberg.net;Bill Allison in Washington at ballison14@bloomberg.net;Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max BerleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Market Realist
Could Tesla Eventually ‘Amazon’ Gasoline Carmakers?
Many believe that EVs will eventually phase out internal combustion engine cars. Can gasoline carmakers really be Amazoned by Tesla?
- Reuters
Time running out to get off Amazon's addictive cloud French minister warns
Amazon's cloud computing is like a "soft drug", a French minister said on Tuesday, warning that time was running out for Europe to wean itself off the U.S. company's services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become the leading provider of data storage in just a few years, raising concerns in Europe that the group could let U.S. intelligence agencies access corporate data under the U.S CLOUD Act of 2018. "AWS is a soft drug.
- Zacks
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Barclays, Lloyds Banking, Next plc, Marks & Spencer and Amazon.com
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Barclays, Lloyds Banking, Next plc, Marks & Spencer and Amazon.com
- Business Wire
Amazon Announces Live Stream of Behind the Scenes, Educational Tour Inside an Amazon Robotics Fulfillment Center to Inspire Students to Pursue STEM and Computer Science Education
The live stream, in collaboration with nonprofit FIRST, will feature state of the art robotics technology from inside an Amazon Robotics Fulfillment Center so students learn more about robotics and the importance of a computer science education. Amazon (AMZN) today announced that on Thursday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. PT, teachers and students can go online to Twitch (www.twitch.tv/firstinspires) to watch and participate in a live stream of a first-of-its-kind, interactive and educational tour inside an Amazon Robotics fulfillment center. The live stream, in collaboration with global nonprofit FIRST and hosted by Twitch influencer Deejay Knight, will feature state of the art robotics technology behind the scenes at Amazon.
- Zacks
NETGEAR Boosts Orbi Portfolio With Advanced WiFi Systems
With the new dual band Orbi offering, NETGEAR (NTGR) is making the Orbi technology more accessible to a broader audience by addressing the WiFi needs of every household.
- Bloomberg
New Facebook Portal Review: Echo Show Rival Lacks Privacy, Apps
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook’s Portal does exactly what the company says: it serves as a high-end home camera for video conferencing. With an improved design, this year’s iteration better blends into home decors, and with a lower price, it’s attainable for a wider group of people. What it doesn’t do, however, is offer any reassurance that Facebook has finally solved the privacy worry trifecta of always-listening voice assistants, self-activating video cameras and its own tarnished history with user data.The new 10-inch device looks like a picture frame that could fit into a row of family photos on a mantelpiece. It can be situated in either portrait or landscape orientation, and its build quality is fine for a $179 device (there’s also an 8-inch Portal Mini for $129). The star attraction of this product line is its wide-angle video camera, which can automatically follow a person and zoom in on them as they move around a room during a chat. It neatly combines the unnerving and the magical aspects of technology, and if multiple people are present in the frame, the camera will move between them as they are talking and users can choose a person to focus on at any time.In calls, you can pin animated masks, such as a dragon, over users’ faces and also modify their voices. That’s one small step toward giving people more control over what representations of themselves they send over the internet. There are also options to share a book or listen to music together with the person on the other end of a call with the help of Spotify, Pandora or iHeartRadio. The integrated speaker sounds great for video chatting, but it isn’t likely to replace a dedicated music device.As a video chat tool, Portal works as advertised. But it’s difficult to recommend when you can buy a far more functional device like a tablet or a smart home speaker with a screen and camera for either the same price or a little bit more. The Portal platform still suffers from a pronounced paucity of apps, including ones to make video calls with that aren’t provided by Facebook itself.Facebook is banking on its advanced camera to pull users away from more functional smart screens, but that feature alone probably isn’t enough for most people. Amazon’s new Echo Show 8 costs the same as the smaller Portal, while Google’s Nest Hub Max costs $50 more than the Portal and is a much more comprehensive product thanks to Google’s smart assistant and web integrations. If users are looking just to video chat, that could also be accomplished via video conferencing capabilities now built into virtually every modern phone and tablet.With the Portal, Facebook could have rivaled the Amazon Echo Show and smart displays running Google’s optimized version of Android by creating a device that sits at the center of the Facebook ecosystem with better video chat as its key selling point, but the company limited itself by focusing solely on the video conferencing. Built-in Alexa functionality gives the Portal some added capabilities, but even that has the downside of forcing users to balance two voice assistants, with one for things like the weather and another for controlling video chat and device settings. Two voice assistants also mean two potential points of privacy vulnerability — and both Amazon and Facebook have had contractors listening to users’ voice requests to their respective assistants. The main software screen on the Portal shows you a grid of your favorite contacts. Calls take place over Facebook Messenger so you can reach people on whatever device they have that app running. WhatsApp is also integrated. Beyond the main screen, there is a screen saver mode, which turns the Portal into a digital picture frame of your photos from Facebook. There’s also a grid of giant app icons, though the built-in app selection is currently a ghost town. It does include a web browser, Facebook Watch, and the same music apps available within video calls, and Facebook says it will be sharing information on additional apps “in the coming months.”The device might have been useful as a mini recording studio for live streaming — which would effectively leverage Facebook’s vast user base and established streaming platform -- but that’s not a feature that’s currently on offer. Facebook says it’s in the works, however, and is coming later this year. In terms of privacy, Facebook’s hardware team is doing as much as it probably can. The Portal has a built-in mechanical shutter to cover the camera and the same toggle can also disable listening. The device easily allows users to opt out of having their voice command recordings stored and listened to by Facebook, though there isn’t a unified menu to simultaneously disable such a setting for both Facebook and Amazon’s on-board assistants. Facebook also says that it doesn’t listen to or store any video calls and that those are encrypted.Those protections don’t change the fact that the Portal inherently is a Facebook product. That means, according to the company, that the Portal will collect information on user logins, if they made a call, and how often they used a particular feature. Facebook says this is in order to inform which ads a user sees on Facebook. For example, Facebook says that if a user makes many video calls, they might see Facebook ads about video calling. Voice input or things said on a video call won’t be used for advertising, however. The existing public perception of Facebook, given its several privacy-related scandals in recent years, won’t help. Throw in Amazon’s recently controversial listening practices with Alexa, and this is a device that some people — no matter how great the camera technology — will simply refuse to have in their personal space.One of the best tech features of the Portal device could also double as a privacy concern for some. During a video call, because of the wide-angle lens, a user is able to pan around the other caller’s video frame without explicit permission. College kids in dorm rooms everywhere are likely to find this a particularly challenging and invasive feature when calling back home to their parents.\--With assistance from Kurt Wagner and Sarah Frier.To contact the author of this story: Mark Gurman in Los Angeles at mgurman1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Vlad Savov at vsavov5@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Business Wire
Amazon Announces U.S. Small Business Spotlight Awards Finalists as Amazon Storefronts Surpasses 2.5 Million Products From Nearly 30,000 American Businesses
Customer voting opens for the Small Business of the Year, Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year, and Small Business Owner Under 30 of the Year, with 18 finalists in the running
- Reuters
India's Flipkart adds original content to video service
Walmart Inc's Indian unit Flipkart is adding original shows to its newly minted video platform, the company said on Tuesday, as it competes with rival Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video. Flipkart, which says it has 160 million customers in India, rolled out its free video service in August and will tie up with Bollywood A-listers like director Farah Khan to produce original video series, it said in a release.
- Reuters
Flipkart adds original content to video service
Walmart Inc's Indian unit Flipkart is adding original shows to its newly minted video platform, the company said on Tuesday, as it competes with rival Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video. Flipkart, which says it has 160 million customers in India, rolled out its free video service in August and will tie up with Bollywood A-listers like director Farah Khan to produce original video series, it said in a release.
- Reuters
How Amazon.com moved into the business of U.S. elections
Amazon.com Inc's cloud computing arm is making an aggressive push into one of the most sensitive technology sectors: U.S. elections. The expansion by Amazon Web Services into state and local elections has quietly gathered pace since the 2016 U.S. presidential vote. More than 40 states now use one or more of Amazon's election offerings, according to a presentation given by an Amazon executive this year and seen by Reuters.
- Reuters
India looks into Flipkart, Amazon festive discounts after retailer complaints
The Indian government is looking into whether hefty discounts offered on Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon.com during their online festive sales violate foreign investment rules, a commerce ministry official told Reuters. India introduced new rules in February aimed at protecting the 130 million people dependent on small-scale retail by deterring big online discounts. While Amazon and Flipkart say they've complied with the federal rules, local trader groups say the two companies are violating them by burning money to offer discounts - of more than 50% in some cases - during the ongoing festive sales.
- Zacks
AT&T Q3 2019 Earnings Preview: Will the Telecom Giant's Stock Continue to Climb?
Shares of AT&T (T) have surged 31% in 2019 to easily top its industry's 8% average climb and the S&P 500's 17% jump. So will AT&T stock continue to climb after it reports its Q3 2019 earnings results?
- Zacks
Amazon (AMZN) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
Amazon (AMZN) closed the most recent trading day at $1,736.43, moving +0.26% from the previous trading session.
- Zacks
IBM (IBM) Q3 Earnings on Deck as Earnings Season Gets Underway
IBM (IBM) is set to report their third quarter results after the closing bell on Tuesday, October 15th as Q3's earnings season gets underway this week.
- Zacks
3 Large-Cap Tech Stocks to Buy in Q3 Earnings Season Amid Trade War Optimism
Associate Stock Strategist Ben Rains dives into some of the latest U.S.-China trade war updates, including President Trump's optimism. We then look at three large-cap technology stocks to consider buying during Q3 earnings season. - Full-Court Finance
- Market Realist
Amazon Stock: What Can Investors Expect in Q3?
Amazon (AMZN) will announce its third-quarter results on October 24. Analysts expect the company to post revenues of $68.8 billion in the September quarter.
- Market Realist
Is Tesla Stock the Next Apple or Amazon?
As a pure-play electric vehicle producer emphasizing software and autonomous driving, how is Tesla (TSLA) similar to Apple and Amazon?
- Zacks
Amazon (AMZN) to Open New Facility in Channahon, Add Jobs
Amazon (AMZN) plans to open a new facility in Channahon in a bid to ensure faster delivery to customers.
- Zacks
Big British Stock Winners on Divorce-Deal Optimism
There are some sectors and stocks in the United Kingdom that are gaining from divorce-deal optimism. Take a look -
- Market Realist
Amazon Stock: Upside and Downside until Q3 Earnings
Amazon stock has fallen 13.4% since its Q2 earnings report on July 25. Wall Street expects Amazon’s EPS to fall 21% YoY to $4.60 in the third quarter.
- Market Realist
Why Amazon Stock Could Perform Well Today
Based on trends for the first and second week of October, Amazon stock could open on a positive note today. The stock closed at $1,731.92 on October 11.
