Amazon.com has been a holding for four years in the Blue Whale Growth fund, one of the highest-profile U.K. funds that invests in U.S. companies.
Not any longer. Fund manager Stephen Yui told MarketWatch sister publication Financial News that rising inflation made him uncomfortable with owning Amazon $(AMZN)$. "We've never liked the retail business, and now we like it even less because of the inflation narrative," he said.
The Labor Department on Wednesday reported that consumer prices shot up 7% in the 12 months ending December.
Yiu also said Walmart $(WMT)$ and others have stepped up their e-commerce game due to COVID.
On Amazon's other key business, cloud provider AWS, Yui said the growth potential of Microsoft $(MSFT)$and Alphabet $(GOOGL)$unit Google were higher.
Amazon shares have climbed 6% over the last 52 weeks, underperforming the broader S&P 500 that has gained 24%.