Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: $AMZN) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
It has been often referred to as “one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world”, and is often regarded as one of the world’s most valuable brands. Amazon is considered one of the Big Five American technology companies, alongside Alphabet (parent company of Google), Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. Initially an online marketplace for books, it has expanded into a multitude of product categories, a strategy that has earned it the moniker The Everything Store.
It has multiple subsidiaries, including Amazon Web Services (cloud computing), Zoox (autonomous vehicles), Kuiper Systems (satellite Internet), and Amazon Lab126 (computer hardware R&D). Its other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods Market.
Amazon Stock Price Forecast 2023-2024
Amazon’s price commenced in 2023 at $84.00. Presently, Amazon is trading at $129.79, marking a 55% increase since the start of the year. The projected Amazon price by the end of 2023 is $131, representing a year-over-year change of +56%.
In the first half of 2024, Amazon’s price is expected to reach $139, and in the second half, it is projected to add $39, concluding the year at $178, which amounts to a +37% increase from the current price.
Amazon Third-quarter Profits Reach Nearly $10 billion
Amazon, almost a year after embarking on an aggressive cost-cutting and workforce reduction strategy, reported nearly $10 billion in profits for a single three-month period in its quarterly financial results released on Thursday.
CEO Andy Jassy attributed this remarkable growth to the stabilization of Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing division, primarily driven by the growing interest in generative AI and the pursuit of faster delivery speeds. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky also pointed out reduced expenses as a contributing factor.
Olsavsky mentioned that Amazon has been judicious in managing its costs, benefiting from a reduction in inflationary pressures in critical transportation areas. The company exercised caution in its spending, evaluating its investments and reallocating resources to areas with the most significant impact. Part of this strategy included carefully managing its workforce and refraining from filling certain positions.
Over the past year, Amazon has undergone a significant reduction of approximately 27,000 jobs as it reevaluated every facet of its business. These layoffs began in November, following two consecutive quarters of net losses last year due to a combination of macroeconomic factors and overexpansion, which led to an excessive workforce and operational footprint.
In this competitive landscape, the three major players—Amazon, Microsoft, and Google—comprise 66% of the global market, as reported by Synergy. Amazon holds a market share ranging from 32% to 34%.
Simultaneously, Amazon’s net sales for this quarter increased by 13% year-over-year, reaching $143.1 billion, compared to $127.1 billion in the third quarter of 2022.
Both years’ financial results for the third quarter include Amazon’s Prime Day, a two-day sales event aimed at enticing shoppers to the platform and its Prime subscription service. Amazon highlighted that the first day of this year’s 48-hour sales event marked the company’s most significant sales day ever, as announced in July.
Amazon tells managers they can now fire employees who won’t come into the office 3 times a week
Amazon is now granting managers the authority to terminate employees who fail to meet the company’s requirement of returning to the office three times a week. This information is based on updated global manager guidelines pertaining to Amazon’s return-to-office policy, which Insider obtained.
The company shared these guidelines and manager talking points via an internal portal earlier this week.
The guidelines instruct managers to initiate a private conversation with employees who do not adhere to the three-times-a-week mandate. Subsequently, the managers are required to document this discussion in a follow-up email.
If the employee persists in refusing to return to the office, the manager is instructed to conduct another meeting and, if necessary, take disciplinary action, including the possibility of terminating employment.
The guidelines state, “If the employee does not demonstrate immediate and sustained attendance after the first conversation, managers should then conduct a follow-up discussion within a reasonable time frame (depending on the employee’s situation, approximately 1-2 weeks).
This conversation will 1) reinforce that returning to the office for 3+ days a week is a requirement of their job, and 2) explain that continued non-compliance without a legitimate reason may lead to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of your employment.”
Granting managers the authority to terminate non-compliant employees represents the most stringent measure Amazon has taken regarding its return-to-office policy.
Initially announced in February, Amazon’s return-to-office process has been unusually contentious, with over 30,000 employees signing an internal petition and many others staging walkouts earlier this year in protest.
Employees have voiced their frustration because they were initially hired as fully remote workers during the pandemic, and they perceive the current mandate as a departure from a policy that allowed individual leaders to determine how their teams operated.
In response to an email inquiry from Insider, Amazon spokesperson Rob Munoz mentioned that the company had observed “more energy, connection, and collaboration” from the vast majority of employees who were in the office more frequently.
He added that Amazon’s return-to-office policy affected only a “relatively small percentage of our team,” and exceptions to the mandate would be considered on a “case-by-case basis.”
Munoz concluded with, “As is the case with any of our policies, we expect our team to follow them and will take appropriate action if someone chooses not to do that.”
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