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Amazon getting desperate: Announcing $5B stock buyback


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2016 Feb 10, 1:54pm   22,213 views  42 comments

by justme   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

Amazon.com Inc.'s stock AMZN, +1.43% climbed 1.5% in after-hours trade Wednesday, after the e-commerce giant announced a new $5 billion share repurchase program. The company disclosed in a regulatory filing that the new program, which does not have a fixed expiration, replaces the previous $2 billion program announced in 2010. The stock, which closed Wednesday's regular session up 1.7%, has tumbled 26% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has lost 11%.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazons-stock-climbs-after-new-share-buyback-announcement-2016-02-10

My take: Jeff Bezos is getting desperate after the price fell from 696 peak, to as low as 474 recently.

#buyback #justme #amzn #amazon #recurring

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1   justme   2016 Feb 10, 2:01pm  

Another tidbit:

Amazon's lifetime retained earnings as of Dec 2015 were 2.545B. This is the ENTIRE (unspent) profit that it has made since the company started in 1994 (AMZN never paid any dividends).

And now they are going to spend twice that on stock buybacks, financed by borrowing?

2   lostand confused   2016 Feb 10, 2:08pm  

justme says

Amazon's lifetime retained earnings as of Dec 2015 were 2.545B. This is the ENTIRE profit that it has made since the company started in 1994 (AMZN never paid any dividends

Wow-That is bad-why is their stock so high then? At least Apple, Google all have tremendous profits?

3   EBGuy   2016 Feb 10, 2:26pm  

I'm fascinated by their new "unstores". Talk about just in time inventory... the unstores have no inventory at the store, no cashiers (and, in theory) no lines. The customer shops before noon and pickups later in the day.

4   justme   2016 Feb 10, 2:30pm  

Unstores. Ha. More like "Unprofits".

I guess it is like going to the post office to pick up your package.

5   lostand confused   2016 Feb 10, 2:31pm  

Also if Amazon is the leader in the cloud space and they are making so low profits-I wonder about the profits of cloud competitors? Is the whole cloud area just another massive hype like the dotcom boom?

6   Dan8267   2016 Feb 10, 2:33pm  

justme says

Amazon.com Inc.'s stock AMZN, +1.43% climbed 1.5% in after-hours trade Wednesday, after the e-commerce giant announced a new $5 billion share repurchase program.

"Investors" are buying now so they can dump it during or after the buyback. And this improves the economy how? Ain't capitalism grand? Zero-sum games played on a massive scale.

7   Strategist   2016 Feb 10, 2:33pm  

justme says

My take: Jeff Bezos is getting desperate after the price fell from 696 peak, to as low as 474 recently.

He sees the stock price as cheap. It's not desperation.

8   Tenpoundbass   2016 Feb 10, 2:35pm  

EBGuy says

I'm fascinated by their new "unstores". Talk about just in time inventory... the unstores have no inventory at the store, no cashiers (and, in theory) no lines. The customer shops before noon and pickups later in the day.

That sounds like an over reaching abuse of internet domain over reaching on main street realm.

I hope it goes down in burning smoldering flames. I've already instructed my wife to never buy anything for our grand-baby from Amazon again. She bought her a walker and a stroller about 5 months ago. Both were broke with in two months of usage. The quality of their goods, are worse than Walmart and Kmart put together.
The walker actually collapsed while the baby was walking in it. A screw fell out of the soft cheap plastic that held the height adjustment clicker in place. Collapsed right under little feet twisting and mangling her legs. She was alright after a few minute good cry. But I wouldn't buy anything else from them again sight unseen. Unless it's a known model and make product and not some item you have no reference on what that product is. They are starting to build the case for retail showrooms. You really need to pinch and poke the merchandise before you buy. Or you'll end up mangling your grand-baby's laigs.

9   justme   2016 Feb 10, 2:36pm  

lostand confused says

Is the whole cloud area just another massive hype like the dotcom boom?

A large fraction of nationwide Cloud Computing services (like Amazon's AWS) are purchased by the so-called pre-IPO tech unicorns (1B+ valuation) like Uber. See

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/amazon-and-the-fantastic-fangs-a-bubblicious-breakfast-of-unicorns-and-slippery-accounting/

QUOTE: What now transpires is that upwards of 50% of that $7 billion of AWS revenue may be coming from Silicon Valley unicorns. That is, from companies that are buying cloud services with the proceeds of VC funding, not out of actual earned revenue.

According to a friend of mine, Uber is now paying $750 rewards for their drivers to recruit new drivers, because drivers are leaving in droves. A lot of unicorns are not doing well.

10   justme   2016 Feb 10, 2:55pm  

Related: Here are the list of the so-called Unicorn companies, Current Private Companies Valued At $1B And Above

https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies

Uber, Xiaomi and AirBnB top the list.

11   Heraclitusstudent   2016 Feb 10, 3:17pm  

justme says

My take: Jeff Bezos is getting desperate after the price fell from 696 peak, to as low as 474 recently.

So far not desperate enough to actually try to increase his margin and make money.

12   EBGuy   2016 Feb 10, 3:19pm  

justme says

I guess it is like going to the post office to pick up your package.

Yes, except it doesn't suck. (did you see the part about no lines).
Thanks for the links about AWS. I had never tied them to the unicorns.

Tenpoundbass says

That sounds like an over reaching abuse of internet domain over reaching on main street realm.

As there are no sales at the unstore, guess who doesn't receive sales tax revenue (unless there is also a distribution warehouse located in the same municipality).

13   Heraclitusstudent   2016 Feb 10, 3:22pm  

lostand confused says

if Amazon is the leader in the cloud space and they are making so low profits-I wonder about the profits of cloud competitors?

Amazon is not really a capitalistic company working for its shareholders.
It is a kind of black star that tries to destroy entire industries by selling the same stuff with no profits.
That's what the cloud is all about: collapsing the margins on the technologies involved.

14   justme   2016 Feb 10, 3:24pm  

EBGuy says

Yes, except it doesn't suck. (did you see the part about no lines).

Fair enough, Amazon *may* be able to achieve that.

EBGuy says

As there are no sales at the unstore, guess who doesn't receive sales tax revenue (unless there is also a distribution warehouse located there).

Not so sure about that. Amazon always charges sales tax nowadays, and I think it goes to the cities by using the buyer zip code to determine who gets it.

15   EBGuy   2016 Feb 10, 3:24pm  

@HS, There can be only one...

16   EBGuy   2016 Feb 10, 3:41pm  

justme says

Not so sure about that. Amazon always charges sales tax nowadays, and I think it goes to the cities by using the buyer zip code to determine who gets it.

I remember reading at some point that Amazon warehouses are a tax bonanza to the city where they are located. This BOE reg seems to confirm:
Regulation 1822. Place of Sale for Purposes of Transactions (Sales) and Use Taxes.
b) PLACE OF SALE IN SPECIFIC INSTANCES
(5) OUT-OF-STATE RETAILERS WHO MAINTAIN A STOCK OF TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY IN CALIFORNIA. If an out-of-state retailer does not have a place of business in this state other than a stock of tangible personal property, the place of sale is the location of the stock of property from which delivery or shipment is made.

17   Booger   2016 Feb 10, 5:29pm  

justme says

Amazon always charges sales tax nowadays, and I think it goes to the cities by using the buyer zip code to determine who gets it.

I just bought something from a third party seller who is not in my state, and I was not charged sales tax.

18   justme   2016 Feb 12, 1:45pm  

EBGuy says

I remember reading at some point that Amazon warehouses are a tax bonanza to the city where they are located. This BOE reg seems to confirm:

I guess what that means is that the warehouse is considered the point-of-sale, rather than the zip code of the recipient. Not good for local businesses.

19   justme   2016 Feb 12, 1:48pm  

Well, Amazon got a small lift from an upgrade by Nomura two days ago, and bounced up of 474 to about 507 at closing today. Always interesting to see that when a stock tanks, some corrupt analyst will step in with an upgrade.

So a $5B stock buyback program, and an upgrade with a price target of $750, could not ignite Amazon. I think that is a sign of further downward price pressure.

20   justme   2016 Sep 21, 5:05pm  

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison is planning a head-on competitive assault on Amazon Web Services (AWS, cloud computing). That should get interesting. Amazon is unable to generate any signficant profits from their main e-commerce business. Instead they get most profits from selling AWS time to other web companies.

“AWS is more closed than an IBM mainframe,” Ellison said. “People are saying that is ridiculous. How can that be,” he said, adding that when IBM’s mainframes were the dominant computing power, companies like Amdahl and Fujitsu developed IBM mainframe clones that you could run your workload on. Ellison also backed his hyperbole with some prices and other data. He said Oracle’s recently released Exadata Express costs customers $175 a month, compared with Amazon’s database offering, Aurora, at $245 a month, versus Oracle’s own database running on AWS at $327 a month.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oracles-larry-ellison-has-a-new-target-amazon-2016-09-20

21   justme   2017 Jun 16, 9:44am  

Jeff Bezos must be losing his marbles. Amazon is buying Whole Foods, the high price leader of groceries, for 13.7B. He is paying for the purchase with new DEBT for Amazon.

I'm speechless. This guy is insane. How is this going to make Amazon profitable? Whole Foods is already on a declining trajectory because people do not want to spend their Whole Paycheck (WF nickname) for some organic mumbo-jumbo.

22   Strategist   2017 Jun 16, 10:24am  

justme says

Jeff Bezos must be losing his marbles. Amazon is buying Whole Foods, the high price leader of groceries, for 13.7B. He is paying for the purchase with new DEBT for Amazon.

I'm speechless. This guy is insane. How is this going to make Amazon profitable? Whole Foods is already on a declining trajectory because people do not want to spend their Whole Paycheck (WF nickname) for some organic mumbo-jumbo.

Wall Street disagrees.
"Insane" Bezos is now the world's 3rd richest man.

23   justme   2017 Jun 16, 10:35am  

Wall St is crazy. A 3% pop in AMZN stock price because they are getting into the grocery business? That pop will not last. Owners of WFM stock made out like bandits, though.

24   justme   2017 Jun 16, 11:06am  

Karl Denninger is comparing the AMZN/WFM deal with the AOL/TIme-Warner deal in terms of the magnitude of the foolishness and the resulting carnage in company valuation. He might just be right about that.

https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=232138

25   justme   2017 Jun 16, 12:28pm  

S&P is placing Amazon on credit downgrade watch due to the 13.7B of new debt required to purchase Whole Foods Markets

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-16/sp-warns-it-may-downgrade-amazon

26   justme   2017 Oct 19, 7:45am  

Amazon announces earnings one week from today, on Oct 26. The stock has now dropped two days in a row. Amazon is usually very successful at pumping their stock before the earnings announcement is made, using a series of well-timed (although often fluffy and immaterial) press releases that appear designed to create buzz about the company. But this quarter the usual recipe does not seem to be working. This could get "interesting".
28   WineHorror   2017 Oct 19, 8:16am  

EBGuy says

I'm fascinated by their new "unstores". Talk about just in time inventory... the unstores have no inventory at the store, no cashiers (and, in theory) no lines. The customer shops before noon and pickups later in the day.


What? How ridiculous. You have to go to the store twice? They also are incorporating a new return procedure. They have Amazon lockers. You go online, find a lock, drive there, do something online, put the product in the locker (hopefully all the lockers aren't taken) and then wait. This is looking ridiculous.
29   Goran_K   2017 Oct 19, 9:20am  

lostand confused says
Wow-That is bad-why is their stock so high then? At least Apple, Google all have tremendous profits?


Apple could purchase Cisco in its ENTIRETY with its cash alone.
30   RWSGFY   2017 Oct 19, 10:25am  

Goran_K says
lostand confused says
Wow-That is bad-why is their stock so high then? At least Apple, Google all have tremendous profits?


Apple could purchase Cisco in its ENTIRETY with its cash alone.


Apple could do the same to Russia.
31   Goran_K   2017 Oct 19, 11:31am  

KimJongUn says
Apple could do the same to Russia.


I'd rather have Cisco.
32   anonymous   2017 Oct 19, 6:26pm  

Just me said "they are getting desperate"

LOL - so much for "desperate". In the 18 months since you posted that the stock price has gone from near 500 to near 1,000!

Just me said "I think that is a sign of downward price pressure"

History has shown it was a sign that you dont know what you were talking about.
33   RWSGFY   2017 Oct 19, 6:28pm  

Nobody knows nothing.
34   justme   2017 Oct 23, 12:36pm  

justme says
Amazon announces earnings one week from today, on Oct 26. The stock has now dropped two days in a row. Amazon is usually very successful at pumping their stock before the earnings announcement is made, using a series of well-timed (although often fluffy and immaterial) press releases that appear designed to create buzz about the company. But this quarter the usual recipe does not seem to be working. This could get "interesting".


Amazon keeps dropping, down to 966 level a few minutes ago. Earnings report on Thursday after market close.
35   Strategist   2017 Oct 30, 8:59pm  

jazz_music says

So the motivation to be this way is gaining share of market where the margins are collapsed? This sounds like killing an industry so you can lead it.

Any comments on WTF are they trying to do really?


It's called competition. Competition that drives down prices benefiting the consumer. Something communists cannot understand.
36   Strategist   2017 Oct 30, 9:03pm  

justme says
Amazon keeps dropping, down to 966 level a few minutes ago. Earnings report on Thursday after market close.


You and Marc Faber have a lot in common.
38   justme   2017 Nov 7, 8:59am  

Fake product reviews?
40   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Dec 2, 4:37pm  

justme says
Unstores. Ha. More like "Unprofits".


When mail-order/online retailers announce they're building Brick and Mortars, it's usually not a good thing.

I think the last time a company made MORE money with a physical location, it was Sears moving from the Outhouse Reading Material/Catalog, to a multitude of Department Stores.

Gateway, anybody?

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