To say that Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been a successful investment over the years would be a major understatement. Since it went public in 1997, Amazon has delivered a 233,100% gain for investors.
It isn’t just the earliest investors who have been big winners here. Even if you had been “late to the party” and bought Amazon shares a decade ago, the value of your investment would have multiplied by more than 15. So, while there’s no way to know exactly how many investors have built life-changing wealth with Amazon stock, it’s fair to say that Amazon has made many long-term investors millionaires over the years.
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However, I don’t necessarily think it’s too late to buy Amazon, even today. There’s a lot to like about the company’s future potential, even with a $2.4 trillion market cap.
There are two main components of Amazon’s business: the e-commerce platform and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-infrastructure side. And both have lots of room to grow.
The bulk of Amazon’s revenue (at least for now) comes from e-commerce. Sales grew by 9% year over year in North America and 12% internationally to a total of about $131.5 billion in the latest quarter. However, it’s important to know that e-commerce still represents just about 16% of all U.S. retail sales, and this continues to steadily climb. In some of the international markets where Amazon operates, the e-commerce penetration rate is even lower.
Speaking of international business, it is worth mentioning that more than 70% of Amazon’s e-commerce business still comes from North America. So, there’s far more potential to grow internationally than you might expect.
When it comes to AWS, the sky is the limit. AWS currently accounts for about 17% of the company’s revenue but is the fastest growing and most profitable part of the business. It grew by 19% year over year in the third quarter, and although it only made up 17% of the sales, it contributed 60% of Amazon’s operating income.
Even this could be just a starting point. According to Fortune Business Insights, the cloud-computing market is expected to more than triple in size by 2032 compared with 2024. If AWS can even maintain its current market share, it could become a much larger profit driver in the years ahead.
When Andy Jassy took over as CEO in mid-2021, he made it a priority to focus on the efficiency of Amazon’s business, and investors have been rewarded with growing margins. Over the past five years alone, Amazon’s operating margin has nearly doubled. In the most recent quarter, Amazon’s net income per share increased by 44% year over year, and trailing-12-month free cash flow grew by a staggering 123%.
In short, profitability continues to improve, and there’s no reason to believe it will level off just yet. So, while 39 times forward earnings might seem like an expensive price to pay, the combination of growth potential and margin expansion could make the stock a better value than you might think.
Amazon is a great example of a stock that many investors don’t consider a “growth story” anymore simply because of how large the business has become. And to be fair, it’s easy to see why some see limited upside potential given Amazon’s massive presence in the daily lives of millions of people.
However, Amazon has more room to grow than you might think. It isn’t exactly a cheap stock, but when you consider where things might stand in a decade or so, it could be well worth the cost.
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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Matt Frankel has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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