We recently published a list of 10 Best AI Stocks to Buy Based on New AI ETF. Since Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) ranks 1st on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Over the past few months the market has seen a massive influx of AI-related ETFs as investors look to ride the bandwagon of AI investing. A report from Wall Street Journal in June said that all ten AI ETFs tracked by website ETF.com saw inflows this year. One major AI ETF, launched by Roundhill, saw its assets grow to $35 million from under $1 million in just two weeks.
Amid the craze of AI ETFs, does it make sense to start investing in every new ETF? Analysts offer some guidance. A Wall Street Journal report quoted Morningstar analyst Kenneth Lamont, who said that we should look for “thematic purity” while investing in AI ETFs. The ETF you choose, according to the analyst, must be investing in “bellwether” stocks positioned to benefit from the AI industry trends.
There is a new AI ETF in town. KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF (AGIX), launched earlier this month, tracks the Solactive Etna Artificial General Intelligence Index, which captures the performance of AI tech companies. The index seeks exposure to three main AI categories: hardware, infrastructure, and applications. The index picks companies by assigning AI Exposure Score, which assesses each company’s relevance to AI tech. You can get exposure to AI companies focusing on data centers, LLMs, AI tech to reduce costs and improve customer experience.
In this article, we will discuss the top 10 holdings of this new AI ETF and see whether they have the potential to rise in the coming months and weeks. With each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 302
Amazon is one of the biggest holdings of KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) continues to gain on the back of its AWS business which is set to benefit from the rise in AI spending. Mizuho recently cited a survey conducted by one of its partners which shows that AWS sales cycle is seeing acceleration. Mizuho analyst James Lee reiterated his Outperform rating on the stock and gave a $240 price target. The survey shows that spending on AWS is expected to rise about 22% year over year in 2024, up from the previous estimate of 20%, as generative AI projects are seen at an “inflection point” with external models about six months away from commercial deployment.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of the stocks Dan Ives of Wedbush thinks have the potential to grow based on the AI revolution.
Investment firm UBS in a latest report named Trainium and Inferentia as Amazon.com Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) strengths in the AI Enabling layer to profit from the $1.16 trillion opportunity. Trainium is a machine learning (ML) chip that AWS purpose-built for deep learning (DL) training of 100B+ parameter models. Inferentia is an AI accelerator for deep learning (DL) and generative AI inference applications.
Amazon Web Services is another major factor that makes Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) well positioned in the Enabling layer of the AI value chain. However, UBS believes Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) doesn’t have any offering in the Intelligence layer of the AI value chain. The firm labeled “chatbot recommendations” as Amazon.com Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) strength in the application layer of AI.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is becoming an AI power house thanks to its AWS business, which saw operating margins cross 37% during the first quarter. AWS operating margins have now come in more than 30% for the past five straight quarters. Amazon.com Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) revenue in the first quarter jumped 12.5% YoY and its adjusted EPS more than tripled. Revenue in North America and International segments grew as well. Analysts believe digital ads is another strong revenue stream for Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), with revenue from the segment increasing 24% YoY to $11.8 billion in the first quarter.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is the fourth-biggest holding of KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF (AGIX).
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported better-than-expected results in the quarter, notably showing a re-acceleration in revenue growth in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) segment for the first time in several quarters. Equally impressive, the AWS segment saw margins increase significantly compared to the prior quarter and year, as it’s growing into a more structurally profitable business. In addition, Amazon’s profit margin is expanding rapidly as its e-commerce business has been re-aligned to produce real profits. Meanwhile, the ongoing mix shift to faster-growing and higher-margin businesses, like AWS and Advertising, are contributing more to the company’s bottom line.
We trimmed our position in Amazon purely as a function of risk management, limiting the position size from growing beyond a 15% weighting. Our ongoing analysis underpins our optimism for the business, its competitive advantages, growth runway, management team, and valuation relative to its long-term growth prospects, hence why it remains our largest position.”
Overall, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) ranks 1st on Insider Monkey’s list titled 10 Best AI Stocks to Buy Based on New AI ETF. While we acknowledge the potential of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
