1. Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash is a Bitcoin spinoff currency that uses the blockchain network to offer lower transaction fees than Bitcoin. It is placed first on our list of 10 best cryptocurrencies Redditors are buying. Compared to the parent coin, it also has increased scalability options. Since Bitcoin Cash was introduced, many other coins in the market have emerged that use the same technology to market the same kind of product. Hundreds of retailers around the world accept payments in Bitcoin Cash. The currency can handle more transactions per minute than Bitcoin.
Although many major tech firms have allowed users to deal in cryptocurrencies on their platforms, the one glaring exception remains American retail giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) accepts crypto-linked gift cards on its platform, but has over the years repeatedly denied user requests to checkout with cryptocurrencies.
Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Chicago-based investment firm Citadel Investment Group is a leading shareholder in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) with 3.3 million shares worth more than $10 billion.
In its Q1 2021 investor letter, Polen Capital, an investment management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“We purchased Amazon in February 2021, which accounts for 5% of the Portfolio’s weighting. For most of the last decade, Amazon did not meet our guardrails. We also did not have enough visibility into future free cash flow margins to indicate that the company would sustainably meet our guardrails and, relatedly, if valuation supported the double-digit annualized returns we seek. We now believe we have that visibility.
In 2008, almost all of Amazon’s revenue and operating profits came from its e-commerce business. Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services (AWS) were new and relatively small back then. The company had roughly 5% operating profit margins overall, entirely from the e-commerce business. In 2009, the company began harvesting its retail business profits to accelerate investment in its distribution and logistics infrastructure globally and very heavily build out and scale AWS data centers. The company’s return on equity began to decline at that time and turned negative for three full years from mid-2012 to mid-2015 (margins and free cash flow declined similarly). So, beginning in 2010 and continuing to mid-2018, Amazon’s business was outside our guardrails. We chose to stick to our guardrails and not own Amazon.
Amazon’s profit drivers have changed quite dramatically over the years. Starting in the back half of 2018, Amazon came back above our hurdles. Revenue generation overcame ongoing heavy investments in areas such as delivery infrastructure, data center infrastructure, and shipping.
Our research suggests that today, after considering cost allocation, Amazon’s underlying profit drivers from higher-margin AWS and Advertising could grow much faster than its low-margin e-commerce business (excluding Prime), its historical driver of revenues and operating profits.
Amazon Prime, AWS, and Advertising together account for only about 20% of revenue today, but we believe over 150% of operating profits. Looking forward, growth higher-margin businesses means Amazon’s total margins and profit dollars could rise quite dramatically.
It is important to note that Amazon proved to be an exception to our guardrails. Based on our experience, very few companies that remain outside our guardrails for an extended period operate from a position of competitive strength but rather, from a position of competitive pressure. Today, we feel we have better visibility into the future earnings growth and margins from AWS and Advertising and believe these could drive 30%+ annual earnings growth for the next five years. Even with significant P/E multiple compression, we would still expect double-digit investment returns.”
You can also take a peek at 15 Best Cryptocurrency Trading Platforms in 2021, 10 Biggest Companies That Are Bullish On Ethereum, 10 Best Blockchain Stocks To Buy and Cathie Wood’s Top 10 Stock Picks.
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