2. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 286
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a prominent American multinational technology company, operates across a diverse spectrum of business interests, including e-commerce, cloud computing (Amazon Web Services – AWS), online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) dominates the ecommerce market in the United States with an impressive market share of 37.8%. This positions the company significantly ahead of competitors such as Walmart and eBay, which hold market shares of 6.3% and 3.5%, respectively.
In the quarter ending in September, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported a remarkable 236% growth in EPS, reaching $0.94. Notably, for its closely-watched Amazon Web Services Cloud business, the company recorded a 12% year-over-year sales increase, reaching $23.1 billion—slightly below analysts’ expectations for sales of $23.2 billion. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) also outlined its anticipation of fourth-quarter sales falling within the range of $160 billion to $167 billion.
According to data from Insider Monkey’s database, a total of 286 elite hedge funds held positions in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock, with a combined stake value of $38.8 billion. This marks an increase from the previous count of 278 hedge funds that collectively held a stake valued at $34.9 billion. Notably, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management emerged as the most significant stakeholder in the company, with 41.35 million shares valued at $5.25 billion.
In its October 2023 investor letter, Lakehouse Capital stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN):
“The Fund’s largest position, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), reported an impressive quarterly result with strong execution and cost discipline driving significant operating leverage across the business. Net sales grew13% year-over-year (11% in constant currency terms) to $143 billion whilst operating income grew 348% to $11.2 billion, well ahead of guidance and analysts’ expectations. Growth within their core e-commerce business proved resilient again and management noted that they are continuing to see material productivity and operational benefits from the recent reorganisation of their US fulfilment network. This involved transitioning from one national network to a series of eight separate regions serving smaller geographic areas.
The companies second largest segment, Amazon Web Services (AWS), grew revenue at 12%, a rate consistent with what was achieved last quarter. This was pleasing to see as it signalled that growth is stabilising after several quarters of deceleration driven by customer optimisations. Whilst these customer optimisations are moderating, management noted that they still remain at elevated levels, and hence, they will likely provide a slight (albeit diminishing) headwind for the next few quarters. In any event, we are not concerned as we believe the current headwinds are more a factor of cyclical weakness, as opposed to any fundamental issues. Zooming out, AWS remains the leading cloud provider (in what is an increasingly two-horse race with Microsoft’s Azure) and with 90% of global IT spend still on-premise there is still plenty of runway for future growth.”
