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Led by business magnate Jeff Bezos, Amazon (AMZN) is a global retail giant and one of the five biggest listed companies in the United States by market capitalisation. It's best known globally for its Amazon marketplace and video-streaming service, Amazon Prime. Besides its cloud computing branch, Amazon Web Services, Amazon also manufactures and sells electronic devices such as the Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs and the Echo.
How to buy shares in Amazon
- Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares in a company listed in the US from Australia you'll need to find a trading platform that offers access to US stock markets. Look for a platform with low brokerage and foreign exchange fees.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, which will typically include your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Amazon. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: AMZN. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment that matches your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Amazon reaches your desired price. To spread out your risk, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying using consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of US$223.29, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Amazon, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Amazon. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights.
Have Amazon's shares ever split?
Amazon's shares were split on a 20:1 basis on 5 June 2022. So if you had owned 1 share the day before the split, the next day you would own 20 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Amazon shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 95% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Amazon shares which in turn could have impacted Amazon's share price.
Use the fields above to explore the returns from a historical investment. Please refer to the charts further up this page to see performance over 5 years, or other periods. Past performance doesn't indicate future results. Capital is at risk.
Amazon price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the last close of $223.29
| 1 week (2024-12-13) | -1.83% |
|---|---|
| 1 month (2024-11-20) | 10.06% |
| 3 months (2024-09-20) | 16.54% |
| 6 months (2024-06-20) | 19.98% |
| 1 year (2023-12-20) | 46.79% |
|---|---|
| 2 years (2022-12-20) | 162.11% |
| 3 years (2021-12-20) | 33.64% |
| 5 years (2019-12-20) | 149.97% |
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The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is no indication of future results.
Is it a good time to buy Amazon stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. However, this is not a recommendation. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
Is Amazon under- or over-valued?
Valuing Amazon stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Amazon's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Amazon's P/E ratio
Amazon's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 47x. In other words, Amazon shares trade at around 47x recent earnings.
That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.
Amazon's PEG ratio
Amazon's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.9073. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Amazon's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Amazon's EBITDA
Amazon's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is US$111.6 billion (£88.1 billion).
The EBITDA is a measure of a Amazon's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure stock profitability.
Amazon share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Amazon's shares have ranged in value from as little as US$144.05 up to US$233. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta measures a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Amazon's is 1.146. This would suggest that Amazon's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
Amazon financials
| Revenue TTM | US$620.1 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 10.96% |
| Gross profit TTM | US$225.2 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 7.07% |
| Return on equity TTM | 22.56% |
| Profit margin | 8.04% |
| Book value | 24.655 |
| Market capitalisation | US$2.3 trillion |
| EBITDA | US$111.6 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Amazon share dividends
We're not expecting Amazon to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.
Amazon's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Amazon.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
Amazon's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 33.42
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Amazon's overall score of 33.42 (as at 12/31/2018) is nothing to write home about – landing it in it in the 52nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Amazon is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
Amazon's environmental score
Environmental score: 10.63/100
Amazon's environmental score of 10.63 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Amazon is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
Amazon's social score
Social score: 18.52/100
Amazon's social score of 18.52 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Amazon is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.
Amazon's governance score
Governance score: 12.78/100
Amazon's governance score puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Amazon is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
Amazon's controversy score
Controversy score: 3/5
ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Amazon scored a 3 out of 5 for controversy – a middle-of-the-table result reflecting that Amazon hasn't always managed to keep its nose clean.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary
Amazon.com Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.
| Total ESG score | 33.42 |
|---|---|
| Total ESG percentile | 52.16 |
| Environmental score | 10.63 |
| Environmental score percentile | 7 |
| Social score | 18.52 |
| Social score percentile | 7 |
| Governance score | 12.78 |
| Governance score percentile | 7 |
| Level of controversy | 3 |
Amazon overview
Amazon.com, Inc. engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content. In addition, the company offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products in its stores; and programs that allow authors, independent publishers, musicians, filmmakers, Twitch streamers, skill and app developers, and others to publish and sell content. Further, it provides compute, storage, database, analytics, machine learning, and other services, as well as advertising services through programs, such as sponsored ads, display, and video advertising. Additionally, the company offers Amazon Prime, a membership program. The company's products offered through its stores include merchandise and content purchased for resale and products offered by third-party sellers. It serves consumers, sellers, developers, enterprises, content creators, advertisers, and employees. Amazon.com, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
Past developments
05 January 2023: Online retail titan Amazon is cutting more than 18,000 jobs worldwide in the largest layoffs programme in its history as part of plans to slash costs. It is understood the job losses will include the UK and Europe.
23 June 2022: Amazon will move below Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., losing its place as the third largest stock in FTSE Russell indexes as part of this year’s reshuffle.
02 June 2022: Amazon stock has surged 16% this week ahead of a 20-1 stock split. What does that mean for investors?
23 June 2022: Amazon will move below Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., losing its place as the third largest stock in FTSE Russell indexes as part of this year’s reshuffle.
02 June 2022: Amazon stock has surged 16% this week ahead of a 20-1 stock split. What does that mean for investors?
Amazon in the news
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