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Hot on the heels of Apple, Amazon’s market value hits $1 trillion for the first time
Shares of Amazon.com Inc. briefly passed $2,050.50 this morning, pushing the e-commerce giant’s market value to more than $1 trillion in a major milestone for the tech industry. The stock has since dropped back down to about $2,039.
The late-morning stock surge gives Amazon the distinction of becoming the second-ever U.S. company to join the 13-figure club behind Apple Inc., which broke $1 trillion last month. The iPhone maker has since seen its market valuation go up by $100 billion more, topping $1.1 trillion.
Amazon’s stock is in the middle of a growth streak as well. Today’s milestone comes just five days after the company passed $2,000 and caps off a year in which its shares doubled in value. According to data from Bloomberg, the e-commerce giant’s performance over the past 12 months trails only that of medical equipment maker Align Technology Inc. and Netflix Inc. in terms of percentage gains.
Amazon’s stock market momentum is fueled by a highly effective expansion strategy spanning multiple markets. One of its main growth drivers is the Amazon Web Services Inc. cloud division, which drove revenue up by 49 percent last quarter, to $6.11 billion. The unit’s operating profit jumped 93 percent during the same period, to $1.64 billion.
The contribution from AWS accounted for the bulk of the $3 billion total operating income that Amazon reported for the quarter. The unit’s strong profits help offset the thin margins of the company’s core e-commerce business, which continues to see significant growth despite already dominating half the online retail market in the U.S.
Amazon is also branching out into new areas. The company moved into brick-and-mortar retail last year with the $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc. and more recently shelled out $1 billion for PillPack Inc., an online pharmacy. Amazon is expanding geographically as well, an effort that came to the fore last month after multiple reports claimed it had acquired Indian consumer services portal Tapzo for $40 million.
Image: Dominic Smith/Flickr
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