Whatever you’re looking for when shopping online, you can almost be certain that Amazon have it listed on their site. Amazon (AMZN) is the leading online retail site and has a colossal revenue of $113.1 billion. But did you know that the ecommerce giant came from humble beginnings?
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon from his garage in Washington on 5th July 1994. The company started out as an online bookseller, but eventually diversified, becoming an online marketplace. In 2015, Amazon overtook Walmart in becoming the highest valued retailer in the United States, based on market capitalisation.
Today, Amazon is the fourth most valuable company in the world and is far more than just a marketplace, providing its users with video and music streaming, and gaming. Of course, the company’s stock value has also increased exponentially over the years.
One of the ways you can trade AMZN stocks is through contracts for difference (CFD). You can speculate on the price movements of leading tech stocks like Amazon when stock trading on Plus500, a CFD trading platform, where you can invest without owning the underlying asset.
But when it comes to traditional stock trading, who are Amazon’s top shareholders? Read on to find out.
Jeff Bezos
Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos stepped down from his position as chief executive officer (CEO) on 5th July 2021, but still remains the company’s biggest shareholder, holding 55.5 million shares. Now the executive chair of Amazon’s board, it would appear that Bezos no longer needs the responsibility or income that the position of CEO afforded him, since he is currently the top ranked individual on Forbes’ Billionaires list.
In 2019, Bezos divorced his wife, Mackenzie Bezos — another leading force behind Amazon’s success. In their divorce settlement it was agreed that Mackenzie would continue to hold 25% of Bezos’ shares in the company, however, he would maintain voting control over the entire value of the stake.
Andrew Jassy
When Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon, this role was filled by Andrew Jassy. This was a seamless handover since Jassy had previously stood as CEO of Amazon Web Services. Second to Bezos, Jassy holds 94,797 shares of the company. This accounts for 0.02% of all Amazon shares and is testament to the longevity of his commitment to Amazon, joining the business back in 1997.
Jeffery Blackburn
Jeffery Blackburn has worked at Amazon since 1998 and prior to this, worked as an associate at a bank. Today, Blackburn holds 48,967 shares of Amazon and is the Senior Vice President of Business Development. Blackburn has been instrumental to Amazon’s growth in the marketplace and has helped the business to diversify, expanding the business to become far more than just an eCommerce platform.
Institutional investors — Advisor Group Inc.
Today, the majority of Amazon’s shares are held by institutional investors, controlling 59.90 of the outstanding shares of the company. Advisor Group Inc is an institutional brokerage company that deals with asset management and financial planning, and holds 35.4 million shares of Amazon. This accounts for 7.1% of the company’s outstanding shares.
Is Amazon stock a buy?
At the time of writing, Amazon is recording a Relative Strength Rating of 42 out of a possible 99. This is weak in comparison to its competitors and means that it has only outperformed by 42%. As a rule of thumb, a company is usually a buy if it records a Strength Rating of 80 or higher. Additionally, Amazon stock has an IBD Composite Rating of 73. This is out of a possible 99, and it’s advised to try to invest in stocks that record a rating of 90 or higher.
As such, Amazon stock is potentially not a buy and still lagging from its pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, many stocks like Netflix (NFLX) and Shopify (SHOP) have thrived as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, it’s worth doing your research and finding a stock that is currently outperforming its rivals or has attractive growth projections.