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HODLFTW

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- HODLFTWHODLFTW
  ·2023-02-26
  TLDR
  Buffett’s Annual Letter: Berkshire Will Always Hold a Boatload of Cash and U.S. Treasury Bills
  Warren Buffett is still betting on America.Stocks and bonds slumped in 2022 after central banks rais
  Buffett’s Annual Letter: Berkshire Will Always Hold a Boatload of Cash and U.S. Treasury Bills
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- HODLFTWHODLFTW
  ·2021-09-22
  Another "invite you to tent, glare into my crystal ball and see your 10x return future"?...
  1 Growth Stock That Could Produce 10X Returns
  The future looks bright for this e-commerce company.
  1 Growth Stock That Could Produce 10X Returns
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- HODLFTWHODLFTW
  ·2021-06-30
  TLDR
  Facebook: Simply Unstoppable
  The #StopHateforProfit Campaign, antitrust allegations, Apple IDFA issue, and a host of other historical issues have not stopped the social media giant and will not stop it.Despite an impressive rally delivering 65% since the start of CY20 and 26% YTD, Facebook remains undervalued relative to its peers and the FAANG stocks with the best forward estimates.The strong moat originating from their sheer user base, and sizeable TAMs in E-commerce, VR/AR, digital assets , cumulatively make for a compel
  Facebook: Simply Unstoppable
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- HODLFTWHODLFTW
  ·2021-06-11
  TLDR...
  Amazon: A No-Brainer For The Next 10 Years
  The recent approval of Amazon Pharmacy provides a huge TAM.Amazonis one of the best-known companies in the world, it seems difficult to discover something new in it but the reality is that there is a lot to discover. After performing this in-depth analysis of Amazon, I have realized that most segments are in their early stages. The current valuation is very attractive considering that they are just scratching the surface of the potential of these divisions.Amazon Healthcare has a huge TAM throug
  Amazon: A No-Brainer For The Next 10 Years
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stock market headlines, business news, financials and earnings ","home_visible":1,"media_name":"Tiger Newspress","id":"1079075236","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba"},"pubTimestamp":1677334099,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1117520516?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2023-02-25 22:08","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Buffett’s Annual Letter: Berkshire Will Always Hold a Boatload of Cash and U.S. Treasury Bills","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1117520516","media":"Tiger Newspress","summary":"Warren Buffett is still betting on America.Stocks and bonds slumped in 2022 after central banks rais","content":"<html><head></head><body><p>Warren Buffett is still betting on America.</p><p>Stocks and bonds slumped in 2022 after central banks raised interest rates at a rapid pace to try to rein in inflation. But Mr. Buffett retained his sense of optimism in his annual letter to investors Saturday, saying he attributes much of his success over the years to the resilience of the U.S. economy.</p><p>“I have been investing for 80 years—more than one-third of our country’s lifetime. Despite our citizens’ penchant—almost enthusiasm—for self-criticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America,” Mr. Buffett said in the letter.</p><p>Mr. Buffett, widely regarded as one of the world’s top investors, has been publishing the letters for more than half a century. Over that time, he hasn’t just reflected on the past year for his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., but also shared his thoughts on everything from esoteric accounting rules to his aversion to excessive risk-taking.</p><p>Saturday’s letter offered readers a glimpse into how Mr. Buffett, 92, viewed what wound up being a shaky stretch for markets.</p><p>The volatility offered Berkshire an opportunity to jump in and buy stocks. While Berkshire largely bought back its own shares in 2021, it focused more in 2022 on investing in other companies—opening up new positions in media company Paramount Global and building-materials manufacturer Louisiana-Pacific Corp., among other businesses, and swiftly becoming Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s single biggest shareholder.</p><p>As of the end of 2022, Berkshire was the largest shareholder of eight companies—American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Chevron Corp., Coca-Cola Co., HP Inc., Moody’s Corp., Occidental and Paramount Global.</p><p>“America would have done fine without Berkshire. The reverse is not true,” Mr. Buffett said.</p><p>Berkshire also released its results for 2022 on Saturday.</p><p>The Omaha, Neb., company, which owns businesses including insurer Geico, railroad BNSF Railway and chocolate maker See’s Candies, posted a loss of $22.82 billion for the year, stung by $67.9 billion in investment and derivative contract losses. In 2021, Berkshire posted a profit of $90.8 billion.</p><p>Total revenue rose 9.4% to $302.1 billion.</p><p>Berkshire’s operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, rose to a record $30.8 billion.</p><p>Mr. Buffett, Berkshire’s chief executive, has long held that operating earnings are a better reflection of how Berkshire is doing, since accounting rules require the company to include unrealized gains and losses from its massive investment portfolio in its net income. Volatile markets can make Berkshire’s net income change substantially from quarter to quarter, regardless of how its underlying businesses are doing.</p><p>“Capital gains, to be sure, have been hugely important to Berkshire over past decades, and we expect them to be meaningfully positive in future decades,” Mr. Buffett said in his letter. “But their quarter-by-quarter gyrations, regularly and mindlessly headlined by media, totally misinform investors,” he said, adding that he and his right-hand man Charlie Munger urged shareholders to focus instead on Berkshire’s operating earnings, which rose to a record for the full year in 2022.</p><h2>Read the full letter here:</h2><p>To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:</p><p>Charlie Munger, my long-time partner, and I have the job of managing the savings of a great number of individuals. We are grateful for their enduring trust, a relationship that often spans much of their adult lifetime. It is those dedicated savers that are forefront in my mind as I write this letter.</p><p>A common belief is that people choose to save when young, expecting thereby to maintain their living standards after retirement. Any assets that remain at death, this theory says, will usually be left to their families or, possibly, to friends and philanthropy.</p><p>Our experience has differed. We believe Berkshire’s individual holders largely to be of the once-a-saver, always-a-saver variety. Though these people live well, they eventually dispense most of their funds to philanthropic organizations. These, in turn, redistribute the funds by expenditures intended to improve the lives of a great many people who are unrelated to the original benefactor. Sometimes, the results have been spectacular.</p><p>The disposition of money unmasks humans. Charlie and I watch with pleasure the vast flow of Berkshire-generated funds to public needs and, alongside, the infrequency with which our shareholders opt for look-at-me assets and dynasty-building.</p><p>Who wouldn’t enjoy working for shareholders like ours?</p><h2>What We Do</h2><p>Charlie and I allocate your savings at Berkshire between two related forms of ownership. First, we invest in businesses that we control, usually buying 100% of each. Berkshire directs capital allocation at these subsidiaries and selects the CEOs who make day-by-day operating decisions. When large enterprises are being managed, both trust and rules are essential. Berkshire emphasizes the former to an unusual – some would say extreme – degree. Disappointments are inevitable. We are understanding about business mistakes; our tolerance for personal misconduct is zero.</p><p>In our second category of ownership, we buy publicly-traded stocks through which we passively own pieces of businesses. Holding these investments, we have no say in management.</p><p>Our goal in both forms of ownership is to make meaningful investments in businesses with both long-lasting favorable economic characteristics and trustworthy managers. Please note particularly that we own publicly-traded stocks based on our expectations about their long-term business performance, not because we view them as vehicles for adroit purchases and sales. That point is crucial: Charlie and I are not stock-pickers; we are business-pickers.</p><p>Over the years, I have made many mistakes. Consequently, our extensive collection of businesses currently consists of a few enterprises that have truly extraordinary economics, many that enjoy very good economic characteristics, and a large group that are marginal. Along the way, other businesses in which I have invested have died, their products unwanted by the public. Capitalism has two sides: The system creates an ever-growing pile of losers while concurrently delivering a gusher of improved goods and services. Schumpeter called this phenomenon “creative destruction.”</p><p>One advantage of our publicly-traded segment is that – episodically – it becomes easy to buy pieces of wonderful businesses at wonderful prices. It’s crucial to understand that stocks often trade at truly foolish prices, both high and low. “Efficient” markets exist only in textbooks. In truth, marketable stocks and bonds are baffling, their behavior usually understandable only in retrospect.</p><p>Controlled businesses are a different breed. They sometimes command ridiculously higher prices than justified but are almost never available at bargain valuations. Unless under duress, the owner of a controlled business gives no thought to selling at a panic-type valuation.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>At this point, a report card from me is appropriate: In 58 years of Berkshire management, most of my capital-allocation decisions have been no better than so-so. In some cases, also, bad moves by me have been rescued by very large doses of luck. (Remember our escapes from near-disasters at USAir and Salomon? I certainly do.)</p><p>Our satisfactory results have been the product of about a dozen truly good decisions – that would be about one every five years – and a sometimes-forgotten advantage that favors long-term investors such as Berkshire. Let’s take a peek behind the curtain.</p><h2>The Secret Sauce</h2><p>In August 1994 – yes, 1994 – Berkshire completed its seven-year purchase of the 400 million shares of Coca-Cola we now own. The total cost was $1.3 billion – then a very meaningful sum at Berkshire.</p><p>The cash dividend we received from Coke in 1994 was $75 million. By 2022, the dividend had increased to $704 million. Growth occurred every year, just as certain as birthdays. All Charlie and I were required to do was cash Coke’s quarterly dividend checks. We expect that those checks are highly likely to grow.</p><p>American Express is much the same story. Berkshire’s purchases of Amex were essentially completed in 1995 and, coincidentally, also cost $1.3 billion. Annual dividends received from this investment have grown from $41 million to $302 million. Those checks, too, seem highly likely to increase.</p><p>These dividend gains, though pleasing, are far from spectacular. But they bring with them important gains in stock prices. At yearend, our Coke investment was valued at $25 billion while Amex was recorded at $22 billion. Each holding now accounts for roughly 5% of Berkshire’s net worth, akin to its weighting long ago.</p><p>Assume, for a moment, I had made a similarly-sized investment mistake in the 1990s, one that flat-lined and simply retained its $1.3 billion value in 2022. (An example would be a high-grade 30-year bond.) That disappointing investment would now represent an insignificant 0.3% of Berkshire’s net worth and would be delivering to us an unchanged $80 million or so of annual income.</p><p>The lesson for investors: The weeds wither away in significance as the flowers bloom. Over time, it takes just a few winners to work wonders. And, yes, it helps to start early and live into your 90s as well.</p><h2>The Past Year in Brief</h2><p>Berkshire had a good year in 2022. The company’s operating earnings – our term for income calculated using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”), exclusive of capital gains or losses from equity holdings – set a record at $30.8 billion. Charlie and I focus on this operational figure and urge you to do so as well. The GAAP figure, absent our adjustment, fluctuates wildly and capriciously at every reporting date. Note its acrobatic behavior in 2022, which is in no way unusual:</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/69e74650656620f9fa3f1e55c15a90e5\" tg-width=\"797\" tg-height=\"207\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"/></p><p>The GAAP earnings are 100% misleading when viewed quarterly or even annually. Capital gains, to be sure, have been hugely important to Berkshire over past decades, and we expect them to be meaningfully positive in future decades. But their quarter-by-quarter gyrations, regularly and mindlessly headlined by media, totally misinform investors.</p><p>A second positive development for Berkshire last year was our purchase of Alleghany Corporation, a property-casualty insurer captained by Joe Brandon. I’ve worked with Joe in the past, and he understands both Berkshire  and insurance. Alleghany delivers special value to us because Berkshire’s unmatched financial strength allows its insurance subsidiaries to follow valuable and enduring investment strategies unavailable to virtually all competitors.</p><p>Aided by Alleghany, our insurance float increased during 2022 from $147 billion to $164 billion. With disciplined underwriting, these funds have a decent chance of being cost-free over time. Since purchasing our first property-casualty insurer in 1967, Berkshire’s float has increased 8,000-fold through acquisitions, operations and innovations. Though not recognized in our financial statements, this float has been an extraordinary asset for Berkshire. New shareholders can get an understanding of its value by reading our annually updated explanation of float on page A-2.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>A very minor gain in per-share intrinsic value took place in 2022 through Berkshire share repurchases as well as similar moves at Apple and American Express, both significant investees of ours. At Berkshire, we directly increased your interest in our unique collection of businesses by repurchasing 1.2% of the company’s outstanding shares. At Apple and Amex, repurchases increased Berkshire’s ownership a bit without any cost to us.</p><p>The math isn’t complicated: When the share count goes down, your interest in our many businesses goes up. Every small bit helps if repurchases are made at value-accretive prices. Just as surely, when a company overpays for repurchases, the continuing shareholders lose. At such times, gains flow only to the selling shareholders and to the friendly, but expensive, investment banker who recommended the foolish purchases.</p><p>Gains from value-accretive repurchases, it should be emphasized, benefit all owners – in every respect. Imagine, if you will, three fully-informed shareholders of a local auto dealership, one of whom manages the business. Imagine, further, that one of the passive owners wishes to sell his interest back to the company at a price attractive to the two continuing shareholders. When completed, has this transaction harmed anyone? Is the manager somehow favored over the continuing passive owners? Has the public been hurt?</p><p>When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive).</p><p>Almost endless details of Berkshire’s 2022 operations are laid out on pages K-33 – K-66. Charlie and I, along with many Berkshire shareholders, enjoy poring over the many facts and figures laid out in that section. These pages are not, however, required reading. There are many Berkshire centimillionaires and, yes, billionaires who have never studied our financial figures. They simply know that Charlie and I – along with our families and close friends – continue to have very significant investments in Berkshire, and they trust us to treat their money as we do our own.</p><p>And that is a promise we can make.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>Finally, an important warning: Even the operating earnings figure that we favor can easily be manipulated by managers who wish to do so. Such tampering is often thought of as sophisticated by CEOs, directors and their advisors. Reporters and analysts embrace its existence as well. Beating “expectations” is heralded as a managerial triumph.</p><p>That activity is disgusting. It requires no talent to manipulate numbers: Only a deep desire to deceive is required. “Bold imaginative accounting,” as a CEO once described his deception to me, has become one of the shames of capitalism.</p><h2>58 Years – and a Few Figures</h2><p>In 1965, Berkshire was a one-trick pony, the owner of a venerable – but doomed – New England textile operation. With that business on a death march, Berkshire needed an immediate fresh start. Looking back, I was slow to recognize the severity of its problems.</p><p>And then came a stroke of good luck: National Indemnity became available in 1967, and we shifted our resources toward insurance and other non-textile operations.</p><p>Thus began our journey to 2023, a bumpy road involving a combination of continuous savings by our owners (that is, by their retaining earnings), the power of compounding, our avoidance of major mistakes and – most important of all – the American Tailwind. America would have done fine without Berkshire. The reverse is not true.</p><p>Berkshire now enjoys major ownership in an unmatched collection of huge and diversified businesses. Let’s first look at the 5,000 or so publicly-held companies that trade daily on NASDAQ, the NYSE and related venues. Within this group is housed the members of the S&amp;P 500 Index, an elite collection of large and well-known American companies.</p><p>In aggregate, the 500 earned $1.8 trillion in 2021. I don’t yet have the final results for 2022. Using, therefore, the 2021 figures, only 128 of the 500 (including Berkshire itself) earned $3 billion or more. Indeed, 23 lost money.</p><p>At yearend 2022, Berkshire was the largest owner of eight of these giants: American Express, Bank of America, Chevron, Coca-Cola, HP Inc., Moody’s, Occidental Petroleum and Paramount Global.</p><p>In addition to those eight investees, Berkshire owns 100% of BNSF and 92% of BH Energy, each with earnings that exceed the $3 billion mark noted above ($5.9 billion at BNSF and</p><p>$4.3 billion at BHE). Were these companies publicly-owned, they would replace two present members of the 500. All told, our ten controlled and non-controlled behemoths leave Berkshire more broadly aligned with the country’s economic future than is the case at any other U.S. company. (This calculation leaves aside “fiduciary” operations such as pension funds and investment companies.) In addition, Berkshire’s insurance operation, though conducted through many individually-managed subsidiaries, has a value comparable to BNSF or BHE.</p><p>As for the future, Berkshire will always hold a boatload of cash and U.S. Treasury bills along with a wide array of businesses. We will also avoid behavior that could result in any uncomfortable cash needs at inconvenient times, including financial panics and unprecedented insurance losses. Our CEO will always be the Chief Risk Officer – a task it is irresponsible to delegate. Additionally, our future CEOs will have a significant part of their net worth in Berkshire shares, bought with their own money. And yes, our shareholders will continue to save and prosper by retaining earnings.</p><p>At Berkshire, there will be no finish line.</p><h2>Some Surprising Facts About Federal Taxes</h2><p>During the decade ending in 2021, the United States Treasury received about $32.3 trillion in taxes while it spent $43.9 trillion.</p><p>Though economists, politicians and many of the public have opinions about the consequences of that huge imbalance, Charlie and I plead ignorance and firmly believe that near-term economic and market forecasts are worse than useless. Our job is to manage Berkshire’s operations and finances in a manner that will achieve an acceptable result over time and that will preserve the company’s unmatched staying power when financial panics or severe worldwide recessions occur. Berkshire also offers some modest protection from runaway inflation, but this attribute is far from perfect. Huge and entrenched fiscal deficits have consequences.</p><p>The $32 trillion of revenue was garnered by the Treasury through individual income taxes (48%), social security and related receipts (3412%), corporate income tax payments (812%) and a wide variety of lesser levies. Berkshire’s contribution via the corporate income tax was $32 billion during the decade, almost exactly a tenth of 1% of all money that the Treasury collected.</p><p>And that means – brace yourself – had there been roughly 1,000 taxpayers in the U.S. matching Berkshire’s payments, no other businesses nor any of the country’s 131 million households would have needed to pay any taxes to the federal government. Not a dime.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>Millions, billions, trillions – we all know the words, but the sums involved are almost impossible to comprehend. Let’s put physical dimensions to the numbers:</p><p>- If you convert $1 million into newly-printed $100 bills, you will have a stack that reaches your chest.</p><p>- Perform the same exercise with $1 billion – this is getting exciting! – and the stack reaches about 34 of a mile into the sky.</p><p>- Finally, imagine piling up $32 billion, the total of Berkshire’s 2012-21 federal income tax payments. Now the stack grows to more than 21 miles in height, about three times the level at which commercial airplanes usually cruise.</p><p>When it comes to federal taxes, individuals who own Berkshire can unequivocally state “I gave at the office.”</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>At Berkshire we hope and expect to pay much more in taxes during the next decade. We owe the country no less: America’s dynamism has made a huge contribution to whatever success Berkshire has achieved – a contribution Berkshire will always need. We count on the American Tailwind and, though it has been becalmed from time to time, its propelling force has always returned.</p><p>I have been investing for 80 years – more than one-third of our country’s lifetime. Despite our citizens’ penchant – almost enthusiasm – for self-criticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America. And I doubt very much that any reader of this letter will have a different experience in the future.</p><h2>Nothing Beats Having a Great Partner</h2><p>Charlie and I think pretty much alike. But what it takes me a page to explain, he sums up in a sentence. His version, moreover, is always more clearly reasoned and also more artfully – some might add bluntly – stated.</p><p>Here are a few of his thoughts, many lifted from a very recent podcast:</p><p>- The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor.</p><p>- If you don’t see the world the way it is, it’s like judging something through a distorted lens.</p><p>- All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there. And a related thought: Early on, write your desired obituary – and then behave accordingly.</p><p>- If you don’t care whether you are rational or not, you won’t work on it. Then you will stay irrational and get lousy results.</p><p>- Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage.</p><p>- You can learn a lot from dead people. Read of the deceased you admire and detest.</p><p>- Don’t bail away in a sinking boat if you can swim to one that is seaworthy.</p><p>- A great company keeps working after you are not; a mediocre company won’t do that.</p><p>- Warren and I don’t focus on the froth of the market. We seek out good long-term investments and stubbornly hold them for a long time.</p><p>- Ben Graham said, “Day to day, the stock market is a voting machine; in the long term it’s a weighing machine.” If you keep making something more valuable, then some wise person is going to notice it and start buying.</p><p>- There is no such thing as a 100% sure thing when investing. Thus, the use of leverage is dangerous. A string of wonderful numbers times zero will always equal zero. Don’t count on getting rich twice.</p><p>- You don’t, however, need to own a lot of things in order to get rich.</p><p>- You have to keep learning if you want to become a great investor. When the world changes, you must change.</p><p>- Warren and I hated railroad stocks for decades, but the world changed and finally the country had four huge railroads of vital importance to the American economy. We were slow to recognize the change, but better late than never.</p><p>- Finally, I will add two short sentences by Charlie that have been his decision-clinchers for decades: “Warren, think more about it. You’re smart and I’m right.”</p><p>And so it goes. I never have a phone call with Charlie without learning something. And, while he makes me think, he also makes me laugh.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>I will add to Charlie’s list a rule of my own:   Find   a   very   smart   high-grade partner – preferably slightly older than you – and then listen very carefully to what he says.</p><h2>A Family Gathering in Omaha</h2><p>Charlie and I are shameless. Last year, at our first shareholder get-together in three years, we greeted you with our usual commercial hustle.</p><p>From the opening bell, we went straight for your wallet. In short order, our See’s kiosk sold you eleven tons of nourishing peanut brittle and chocolates. In our P.T. Barnum pitch, we promised you longevity. After all, what else but candy from See’s could account for Charlie and me making it to 99 and 92?</p><p>I know you can’t wait to hear the specifics of last year’s hustle.</p><p>On Friday, the doors were open from noon until 5 p.m., and our candy counters rang up 2,690 individual sales. On Saturday, See’s registered an additional 3,931 transactions between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., despite the fact that 612 of the 912 operating hours occurred while our movie and the question-and-answer session were limiting commercial traffic.</p><p>Do the math: See’s rang up about 10 sales per minute during its prime operating time (racking up $400,309 of volume during the two days), with all the goods purchased at a single location selling products that haven’t been materially altered in 101 years. What worked for See’s in the days of Henry Ford’s model T works now.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>Charlie, I, and the entire Berkshire bunch look forward to seeing you in Omaha on May 5-6. We will have a good time and so will you.</p><p>February 25, 2023 Warren E. Buffett </p><p>Chairman of the Board</p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Buffett’s Annual Letter: Berkshire Will Always Hold a Boatload of Cash and U.S. Treasury Bills</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nBuffett’s Annual Letter: Berkshire Will Always Hold a Boatload of Cash and U.S. Treasury Bills\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<a class=\"head\" href=\"https://laohu8.com/wemedia/1079075236\">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Tiger Newspress </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2023-02-25 22:08</p>\n</div>\n\n</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body><p>Warren Buffett is still betting on America.</p><p>Stocks and bonds slumped in 2022 after central banks raised interest rates at a rapid pace to try to rein in inflation. But Mr. Buffett retained his sense of optimism in his annual letter to investors Saturday, saying he attributes much of his success over the years to the resilience of the U.S. economy.</p><p>“I have been investing for 80 years—more than one-third of our country’s lifetime. Despite our citizens’ penchant—almost enthusiasm—for self-criticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America,” Mr. Buffett said in the letter.</p><p>Mr. Buffett, widely regarded as one of the world’s top investors, has been publishing the letters for more than half a century. Over that time, he hasn’t just reflected on the past year for his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., but also shared his thoughts on everything from esoteric accounting rules to his aversion to excessive risk-taking.</p><p>Saturday’s letter offered readers a glimpse into how Mr. Buffett, 92, viewed what wound up being a shaky stretch for markets.</p><p>The volatility offered Berkshire an opportunity to jump in and buy stocks. While Berkshire largely bought back its own shares in 2021, it focused more in 2022 on investing in other companies—opening up new positions in media company Paramount Global and building-materials manufacturer Louisiana-Pacific Corp., among other businesses, and swiftly becoming Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s single biggest shareholder.</p><p>As of the end of 2022, Berkshire was the largest shareholder of eight companies—American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Chevron Corp., Coca-Cola Co., HP Inc., Moody’s Corp., Occidental and Paramount Global.</p><p>“America would have done fine without Berkshire. The reverse is not true,” Mr. Buffett said.</p><p>Berkshire also released its results for 2022 on Saturday.</p><p>The Omaha, Neb., company, which owns businesses including insurer Geico, railroad BNSF Railway and chocolate maker See’s Candies, posted a loss of $22.82 billion for the year, stung by $67.9 billion in investment and derivative contract losses. In 2021, Berkshire posted a profit of $90.8 billion.</p><p>Total revenue rose 9.4% to $302.1 billion.</p><p>Berkshire’s operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, rose to a record $30.8 billion.</p><p>Mr. Buffett, Berkshire’s chief executive, has long held that operating earnings are a better reflection of how Berkshire is doing, since accounting rules require the company to include unrealized gains and losses from its massive investment portfolio in its net income. Volatile markets can make Berkshire’s net income change substantially from quarter to quarter, regardless of how its underlying businesses are doing.</p><p>“Capital gains, to be sure, have been hugely important to Berkshire over past decades, and we expect them to be meaningfully positive in future decades,” Mr. Buffett said in his letter. “But their quarter-by-quarter gyrations, regularly and mindlessly headlined by media, totally misinform investors,” he said, adding that he and his right-hand man Charlie Munger urged shareholders to focus instead on Berkshire’s operating earnings, which rose to a record for the full year in 2022.</p><h2>Read the full letter here:</h2><p>To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:</p><p>Charlie Munger, my long-time partner, and I have the job of managing the savings of a great number of individuals. We are grateful for their enduring trust, a relationship that often spans much of their adult lifetime. It is those dedicated savers that are forefront in my mind as I write this letter.</p><p>A common belief is that people choose to save when young, expecting thereby to maintain their living standards after retirement. Any assets that remain at death, this theory says, will usually be left to their families or, possibly, to friends and philanthropy.</p><p>Our experience has differed. We believe Berkshire’s individual holders largely to be of the once-a-saver, always-a-saver variety. Though these people live well, they eventually dispense most of their funds to philanthropic organizations. These, in turn, redistribute the funds by expenditures intended to improve the lives of a great many people who are unrelated to the original benefactor. Sometimes, the results have been spectacular.</p><p>The disposition of money unmasks humans. Charlie and I watch with pleasure the vast flow of Berkshire-generated funds to public needs and, alongside, the infrequency with which our shareholders opt for look-at-me assets and dynasty-building.</p><p>Who wouldn’t enjoy working for shareholders like ours?</p><h2>What We Do</h2><p>Charlie and I allocate your savings at Berkshire between two related forms of ownership. First, we invest in businesses that we control, usually buying 100% of each. Berkshire directs capital allocation at these subsidiaries and selects the CEOs who make day-by-day operating decisions. When large enterprises are being managed, both trust and rules are essential. Berkshire emphasizes the former to an unusual – some would say extreme – degree. Disappointments are inevitable. We are understanding about business mistakes; our tolerance for personal misconduct is zero.</p><p>In our second category of ownership, we buy publicly-traded stocks through which we passively own pieces of businesses. Holding these investments, we have no say in management.</p><p>Our goal in both forms of ownership is to make meaningful investments in businesses with both long-lasting favorable economic characteristics and trustworthy managers. Please note particularly that we own publicly-traded stocks based on our expectations about their long-term business performance, not because we view them as vehicles for adroit purchases and sales. That point is crucial: Charlie and I are not stock-pickers; we are business-pickers.</p><p>Over the years, I have made many mistakes. Consequently, our extensive collection of businesses currently consists of a few enterprises that have truly extraordinary economics, many that enjoy very good economic characteristics, and a large group that are marginal. Along the way, other businesses in which I have invested have died, their products unwanted by the public. Capitalism has two sides: The system creates an ever-growing pile of losers while concurrently delivering a gusher of improved goods and services. Schumpeter called this phenomenon “creative destruction.”</p><p>One advantage of our publicly-traded segment is that – episodically – it becomes easy to buy pieces of wonderful businesses at wonderful prices. It’s crucial to understand that stocks often trade at truly foolish prices, both high and low. “Efficient” markets exist only in textbooks. In truth, marketable stocks and bonds are baffling, their behavior usually understandable only in retrospect.</p><p>Controlled businesses are a different breed. They sometimes command ridiculously higher prices than justified but are almost never available at bargain valuations. Unless under duress, the owner of a controlled business gives no thought to selling at a panic-type valuation.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>At this point, a report card from me is appropriate: In 58 years of Berkshire management, most of my capital-allocation decisions have been no better than so-so. In some cases, also, bad moves by me have been rescued by very large doses of luck. (Remember our escapes from near-disasters at USAir and Salomon? I certainly do.)</p><p>Our satisfactory results have been the product of about a dozen truly good decisions – that would be about one every five years – and a sometimes-forgotten advantage that favors long-term investors such as Berkshire. Let’s take a peek behind the curtain.</p><h2>The Secret Sauce</h2><p>In August 1994 – yes, 1994 – Berkshire completed its seven-year purchase of the 400 million shares of Coca-Cola we now own. The total cost was $1.3 billion – then a very meaningful sum at Berkshire.</p><p>The cash dividend we received from Coke in 1994 was $75 million. By 2022, the dividend had increased to $704 million. Growth occurred every year, just as certain as birthdays. All Charlie and I were required to do was cash Coke’s quarterly dividend checks. We expect that those checks are highly likely to grow.</p><p>American Express is much the same story. Berkshire’s purchases of Amex were essentially completed in 1995 and, coincidentally, also cost $1.3 billion. Annual dividends received from this investment have grown from $41 million to $302 million. Those checks, too, seem highly likely to increase.</p><p>These dividend gains, though pleasing, are far from spectacular. But they bring with them important gains in stock prices. At yearend, our Coke investment was valued at $25 billion while Amex was recorded at $22 billion. Each holding now accounts for roughly 5% of Berkshire’s net worth, akin to its weighting long ago.</p><p>Assume, for a moment, I had made a similarly-sized investment mistake in the 1990s, one that flat-lined and simply retained its $1.3 billion value in 2022. (An example would be a high-grade 30-year bond.) That disappointing investment would now represent an insignificant 0.3% of Berkshire’s net worth and would be delivering to us an unchanged $80 million or so of annual income.</p><p>The lesson for investors: The weeds wither away in significance as the flowers bloom. Over time, it takes just a few winners to work wonders. And, yes, it helps to start early and live into your 90s as well.</p><h2>The Past Year in Brief</h2><p>Berkshire had a good year in 2022. The company’s operating earnings – our term for income calculated using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”), exclusive of capital gains or losses from equity holdings – set a record at $30.8 billion. Charlie and I focus on this operational figure and urge you to do so as well. The GAAP figure, absent our adjustment, fluctuates wildly and capriciously at every reporting date. Note its acrobatic behavior in 2022, which is in no way unusual:</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/69e74650656620f9fa3f1e55c15a90e5\" tg-width=\"797\" tg-height=\"207\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"/></p><p>The GAAP earnings are 100% misleading when viewed quarterly or even annually. Capital gains, to be sure, have been hugely important to Berkshire over past decades, and we expect them to be meaningfully positive in future decades. But their quarter-by-quarter gyrations, regularly and mindlessly headlined by media, totally misinform investors.</p><p>A second positive development for Berkshire last year was our purchase of Alleghany Corporation, a property-casualty insurer captained by Joe Brandon. I’ve worked with Joe in the past, and he understands both Berkshire  and insurance. Alleghany delivers special value to us because Berkshire’s unmatched financial strength allows its insurance subsidiaries to follow valuable and enduring investment strategies unavailable to virtually all competitors.</p><p>Aided by Alleghany, our insurance float increased during 2022 from $147 billion to $164 billion. With disciplined underwriting, these funds have a decent chance of being cost-free over time. Since purchasing our first property-casualty insurer in 1967, Berkshire’s float has increased 8,000-fold through acquisitions, operations and innovations. Though not recognized in our financial statements, this float has been an extraordinary asset for Berkshire. New shareholders can get an understanding of its value by reading our annually updated explanation of float on page A-2.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>A very minor gain in per-share intrinsic value took place in 2022 through Berkshire share repurchases as well as similar moves at Apple and American Express, both significant investees of ours. At Berkshire, we directly increased your interest in our unique collection of businesses by repurchasing 1.2% of the company’s outstanding shares. At Apple and Amex, repurchases increased Berkshire’s ownership a bit without any cost to us.</p><p>The math isn’t complicated: When the share count goes down, your interest in our many businesses goes up. Every small bit helps if repurchases are made at value-accretive prices. Just as surely, when a company overpays for repurchases, the continuing shareholders lose. At such times, gains flow only to the selling shareholders and to the friendly, but expensive, investment banker who recommended the foolish purchases.</p><p>Gains from value-accretive repurchases, it should be emphasized, benefit all owners – in every respect. Imagine, if you will, three fully-informed shareholders of a local auto dealership, one of whom manages the business. Imagine, further, that one of the passive owners wishes to sell his interest back to the company at a price attractive to the two continuing shareholders. When completed, has this transaction harmed anyone? Is the manager somehow favored over the continuing passive owners? Has the public been hurt?</p><p>When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive).</p><p>Almost endless details of Berkshire’s 2022 operations are laid out on pages K-33 – K-66. Charlie and I, along with many Berkshire shareholders, enjoy poring over the many facts and figures laid out in that section. These pages are not, however, required reading. There are many Berkshire centimillionaires and, yes, billionaires who have never studied our financial figures. They simply know that Charlie and I – along with our families and close friends – continue to have very significant investments in Berkshire, and they trust us to treat their money as we do our own.</p><p>And that is a promise we can make.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>Finally, an important warning: Even the operating earnings figure that we favor can easily be manipulated by managers who wish to do so. Such tampering is often thought of as sophisticated by CEOs, directors and their advisors. Reporters and analysts embrace its existence as well. Beating “expectations” is heralded as a managerial triumph.</p><p>That activity is disgusting. It requires no talent to manipulate numbers: Only a deep desire to deceive is required. “Bold imaginative accounting,” as a CEO once described his deception to me, has become one of the shames of capitalism.</p><h2>58 Years – and a Few Figures</h2><p>In 1965, Berkshire was a one-trick pony, the owner of a venerable – but doomed – New England textile operation. With that business on a death march, Berkshire needed an immediate fresh start. Looking back, I was slow to recognize the severity of its problems.</p><p>And then came a stroke of good luck: National Indemnity became available in 1967, and we shifted our resources toward insurance and other non-textile operations.</p><p>Thus began our journey to 2023, a bumpy road involving a combination of continuous savings by our owners (that is, by their retaining earnings), the power of compounding, our avoidance of major mistakes and – most important of all – the American Tailwind. America would have done fine without Berkshire. The reverse is not true.</p><p>Berkshire now enjoys major ownership in an unmatched collection of huge and diversified businesses. Let’s first look at the 5,000 or so publicly-held companies that trade daily on NASDAQ, the NYSE and related venues. Within this group is housed the members of the S&amp;P 500 Index, an elite collection of large and well-known American companies.</p><p>In aggregate, the 500 earned $1.8 trillion in 2021. I don’t yet have the final results for 2022. Using, therefore, the 2021 figures, only 128 of the 500 (including Berkshire itself) earned $3 billion or more. Indeed, 23 lost money.</p><p>At yearend 2022, Berkshire was the largest owner of eight of these giants: American Express, Bank of America, Chevron, Coca-Cola, HP Inc., Moody’s, Occidental Petroleum and Paramount Global.</p><p>In addition to those eight investees, Berkshire owns 100% of BNSF and 92% of BH Energy, each with earnings that exceed the $3 billion mark noted above ($5.9 billion at BNSF and</p><p>$4.3 billion at BHE). Were these companies publicly-owned, they would replace two present members of the 500. All told, our ten controlled and non-controlled behemoths leave Berkshire more broadly aligned with the country’s economic future than is the case at any other U.S. company. (This calculation leaves aside “fiduciary” operations such as pension funds and investment companies.) In addition, Berkshire’s insurance operation, though conducted through many individually-managed subsidiaries, has a value comparable to BNSF or BHE.</p><p>As for the future, Berkshire will always hold a boatload of cash and U.S. Treasury bills along with a wide array of businesses. We will also avoid behavior that could result in any uncomfortable cash needs at inconvenient times, including financial panics and unprecedented insurance losses. Our CEO will always be the Chief Risk Officer – a task it is irresponsible to delegate. Additionally, our future CEOs will have a significant part of their net worth in Berkshire shares, bought with their own money. And yes, our shareholders will continue to save and prosper by retaining earnings.</p><p>At Berkshire, there will be no finish line.</p><h2>Some Surprising Facts About Federal Taxes</h2><p>During the decade ending in 2021, the United States Treasury received about $32.3 trillion in taxes while it spent $43.9 trillion.</p><p>Though economists, politicians and many of the public have opinions about the consequences of that huge imbalance, Charlie and I plead ignorance and firmly believe that near-term economic and market forecasts are worse than useless. Our job is to manage Berkshire’s operations and finances in a manner that will achieve an acceptable result over time and that will preserve the company’s unmatched staying power when financial panics or severe worldwide recessions occur. Berkshire also offers some modest protection from runaway inflation, but this attribute is far from perfect. Huge and entrenched fiscal deficits have consequences.</p><p>The $32 trillion of revenue was garnered by the Treasury through individual income taxes (48%), social security and related receipts (3412%), corporate income tax payments (812%) and a wide variety of lesser levies. Berkshire’s contribution via the corporate income tax was $32 billion during the decade, almost exactly a tenth of 1% of all money that the Treasury collected.</p><p>And that means – brace yourself – had there been roughly 1,000 taxpayers in the U.S. matching Berkshire’s payments, no other businesses nor any of the country’s 131 million households would have needed to pay any taxes to the federal government. Not a dime.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>Millions, billions, trillions – we all know the words, but the sums involved are almost impossible to comprehend. Let’s put physical dimensions to the numbers:</p><p>- If you convert $1 million into newly-printed $100 bills, you will have a stack that reaches your chest.</p><p>- Perform the same exercise with $1 billion – this is getting exciting! – and the stack reaches about 34 of a mile into the sky.</p><p>- Finally, imagine piling up $32 billion, the total of Berkshire’s 2012-21 federal income tax payments. Now the stack grows to more than 21 miles in height, about three times the level at which commercial airplanes usually cruise.</p><p>When it comes to federal taxes, individuals who own Berkshire can unequivocally state “I gave at the office.”</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>At Berkshire we hope and expect to pay much more in taxes during the next decade. We owe the country no less: America’s dynamism has made a huge contribution to whatever success Berkshire has achieved – a contribution Berkshire will always need. We count on the American Tailwind and, though it has been becalmed from time to time, its propelling force has always returned.</p><p>I have been investing for 80 years – more than one-third of our country’s lifetime. Despite our citizens’ penchant – almost enthusiasm – for self-criticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America. And I doubt very much that any reader of this letter will have a different experience in the future.</p><h2>Nothing Beats Having a Great Partner</h2><p>Charlie and I think pretty much alike. But what it takes me a page to explain, he sums up in a sentence. His version, moreover, is always more clearly reasoned and also more artfully – some might add bluntly – stated.</p><p>Here are a few of his thoughts, many lifted from a very recent podcast:</p><p>- The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor.</p><p>- If you don’t see the world the way it is, it’s like judging something through a distorted lens.</p><p>- All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there. And a related thought: Early on, write your desired obituary – and then behave accordingly.</p><p>- If you don’t care whether you are rational or not, you won’t work on it. Then you will stay irrational and get lousy results.</p><p>- Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage.</p><p>- You can learn a lot from dead people. Read of the deceased you admire and detest.</p><p>- Don’t bail away in a sinking boat if you can swim to one that is seaworthy.</p><p>- A great company keeps working after you are not; a mediocre company won’t do that.</p><p>- Warren and I don’t focus on the froth of the market. We seek out good long-term investments and stubbornly hold them for a long time.</p><p>- Ben Graham said, “Day to day, the stock market is a voting machine; in the long term it’s a weighing machine.” If you keep making something more valuable, then some wise person is going to notice it and start buying.</p><p>- There is no such thing as a 100% sure thing when investing. Thus, the use of leverage is dangerous. A string of wonderful numbers times zero will always equal zero. Don’t count on getting rich twice.</p><p>- You don’t, however, need to own a lot of things in order to get rich.</p><p>- You have to keep learning if you want to become a great investor. When the world changes, you must change.</p><p>- Warren and I hated railroad stocks for decades, but the world changed and finally the country had four huge railroads of vital importance to the American economy. We were slow to recognize the change, but better late than never.</p><p>- Finally, I will add two short sentences by Charlie that have been his decision-clinchers for decades: “Warren, think more about it. You’re smart and I’m right.”</p><p>And so it goes. I never have a phone call with Charlie without learning something. And, while he makes me think, he also makes me laugh.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>I will add to Charlie’s list a rule of my own:   Find   a   very   smart   high-grade partner – preferably slightly older than you – and then listen very carefully to what he says.</p><h2>A Family Gathering in Omaha</h2><p>Charlie and I are shameless. Last year, at our first shareholder get-together in three years, we greeted you with our usual commercial hustle.</p><p>From the opening bell, we went straight for your wallet. In short order, our See’s kiosk sold you eleven tons of nourishing peanut brittle and chocolates. In our P.T. Barnum pitch, we promised you longevity. After all, what else but candy from See’s could account for Charlie and me making it to 99 and 92?</p><p>I know you can’t wait to hear the specifics of last year’s hustle.</p><p>On Friday, the doors were open from noon until 5 p.m., and our candy counters rang up 2,690 individual sales. On Saturday, See’s registered an additional 3,931 transactions between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., despite the fact that 612 of the 912 operating hours occurred while our movie and the question-and-answer session were limiting commercial traffic.</p><p>Do the math: See’s rang up about 10 sales per minute during its prime operating time (racking up $400,309 of volume during the two days), with all the goods purchased at a single location selling products that haven’t been materially altered in 101 years. What worked for See’s in the days of Henry Ford’s model T works now.</p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p>Charlie, I, and the entire Berkshire bunch look forward to seeing you in Omaha on May 5-6. We will have a good time and so will you.</p><p>February 25, 2023 Warren E. Buffett </p><p>Chairman of the Board</p></body></html>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"BRK.B":"伯克希尔B","BRK.A":"伯克希尔"},"source_url":"","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1117520516","content_text":"Warren Buffett is still betting on America.Stocks and bonds slumped in 2022 after central banks raised interest rates at a rapid pace to try to rein in inflation. But Mr. Buffett retained his sense of optimism in his annual letter to investors Saturday, saying he attributes much of his success over the years to the resilience of the U.S. economy.“I have been investing for 80 years—more than one-third of our country’s lifetime. Despite our citizens’ penchant—almost enthusiasm—for self-criticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America,” Mr. Buffett said in the letter.Mr. Buffett, widely regarded as one of the world’s top investors, has been publishing the letters for more than half a century. Over that time, he hasn’t just reflected on the past year for his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., but also shared his thoughts on everything from esoteric accounting rules to his aversion to excessive risk-taking.Saturday’s letter offered readers a glimpse into how Mr. Buffett, 92, viewed what wound up being a shaky stretch for markets.The volatility offered Berkshire an opportunity to jump in and buy stocks. While Berkshire largely bought back its own shares in 2021, it focused more in 2022 on investing in other companies—opening up new positions in media company Paramount Global and building-materials manufacturer Louisiana-Pacific Corp., among other businesses, and swiftly becoming Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s single biggest shareholder.As of the end of 2022, Berkshire was the largest shareholder of eight companies—American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Chevron Corp., Coca-Cola Co., HP Inc., Moody’s Corp., Occidental and Paramount Global.“America would have done fine without Berkshire. The reverse is not true,” Mr. Buffett said.Berkshire also released its results for 2022 on Saturday.The Omaha, Neb., company, which owns businesses including insurer Geico, railroad BNSF Railway and chocolate maker See’s Candies, posted a loss of $22.82 billion for the year, stung by $67.9 billion in investment and derivative contract losses. In 2021, Berkshire posted a profit of $90.8 billion.Total revenue rose 9.4% to $302.1 billion.Berkshire’s operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, rose to a record $30.8 billion.Mr. Buffett, Berkshire’s chief executive, has long held that operating earnings are a better reflection of how Berkshire is doing, since accounting rules require the company to include unrealized gains and losses from its massive investment portfolio in its net income. Volatile markets can make Berkshire’s net income change substantially from quarter to quarter, regardless of how its underlying businesses are doing.“Capital gains, to be sure, have been hugely important to Berkshire over past decades, and we expect them to be meaningfully positive in future decades,” Mr. Buffett said in his letter. “But their quarter-by-quarter gyrations, regularly and mindlessly headlined by media, totally misinform investors,” he said, adding that he and his right-hand man Charlie Munger urged shareholders to focus instead on Berkshire’s operating earnings, which rose to a record for the full year in 2022.Read the full letter here:To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:Charlie Munger, my long-time partner, and I have the job of managing the savings of a great number of individuals. We are grateful for their enduring trust, a relationship that often spans much of their adult lifetime. It is those dedicated savers that are forefront in my mind as I write this letter.A common belief is that people choose to save when young, expecting thereby to maintain their living standards after retirement. Any assets that remain at death, this theory says, will usually be left to their families or, possibly, to friends and philanthropy.Our experience has differed. We believe Berkshire’s individual holders largely to be of the once-a-saver, always-a-saver variety. Though these people live well, they eventually dispense most of their funds to philanthropic organizations. These, in turn, redistribute the funds by expenditures intended to improve the lives of a great many people who are unrelated to the original benefactor. Sometimes, the results have been spectacular.The disposition of money unmasks humans. Charlie and I watch with pleasure the vast flow of Berkshire-generated funds to public needs and, alongside, the infrequency with which our shareholders opt for look-at-me assets and dynasty-building.Who wouldn’t enjoy working for shareholders like ours?What We DoCharlie and I allocate your savings at Berkshire between two related forms of ownership. First, we invest in businesses that we control, usually buying 100% of each. Berkshire directs capital allocation at these subsidiaries and selects the CEOs who make day-by-day operating decisions. When large enterprises are being managed, both trust and rules are essential. Berkshire emphasizes the former to an unusual – some would say extreme – degree. Disappointments are inevitable. We are understanding about business mistakes; our tolerance for personal misconduct is zero.In our second category of ownership, we buy publicly-traded stocks through which we passively own pieces of businesses. Holding these investments, we have no say in management.Our goal in both forms of ownership is to make meaningful investments in businesses with both long-lasting favorable economic characteristics and trustworthy managers. Please note particularly that we own publicly-traded stocks based on our expectations about their long-term business performance, not because we view them as vehicles for adroit purchases and sales. That point is crucial: Charlie and I are not stock-pickers; we are business-pickers.Over the years, I have made many mistakes. Consequently, our extensive collection of businesses currently consists of a few enterprises that have truly extraordinary economics, many that enjoy very good economic characteristics, and a large group that are marginal. Along the way, other businesses in which I have invested have died, their products unwanted by the public. Capitalism has two sides: The system creates an ever-growing pile of losers while concurrently delivering a gusher of improved goods and services. Schumpeter called this phenomenon “creative destruction.”One advantage of our publicly-traded segment is that – episodically – it becomes easy to buy pieces of wonderful businesses at wonderful prices. It’s crucial to understand that stocks often trade at truly foolish prices, both high and low. “Efficient” markets exist only in textbooks. In truth, marketable stocks and bonds are baffling, their behavior usually understandable only in retrospect.Controlled businesses are a different breed. They sometimes command ridiculously higher prices than justified but are almost never available at bargain valuations. Unless under duress, the owner of a controlled business gives no thought to selling at a panic-type valuation.* * * * * * * * * * * *At this point, a report card from me is appropriate: In 58 years of Berkshire management, most of my capital-allocation decisions have been no better than so-so. In some cases, also, bad moves by me have been rescued by very large doses of luck. (Remember our escapes from near-disasters at USAir and Salomon? I certainly do.)Our satisfactory results have been the product of about a dozen truly good decisions – that would be about one every five years – and a sometimes-forgotten advantage that favors long-term investors such as Berkshire. Let’s take a peek behind the curtain.The Secret SauceIn August 1994 – yes, 1994 – Berkshire completed its seven-year purchase of the 400 million shares of Coca-Cola we now own. The total cost was $1.3 billion – then a very meaningful sum at Berkshire.The cash dividend we received from Coke in 1994 was $75 million. By 2022, the dividend had increased to $704 million. Growth occurred every year, just as certain as birthdays. All Charlie and I were required to do was cash Coke’s quarterly dividend checks. We expect that those checks are highly likely to grow.American Express is much the same story. Berkshire’s purchases of Amex were essentially completed in 1995 and, coincidentally, also cost $1.3 billion. Annual dividends received from this investment have grown from $41 million to $302 million. Those checks, too, seem highly likely to increase.These dividend gains, though pleasing, are far from spectacular. But they bring with them important gains in stock prices. At yearend, our Coke investment was valued at $25 billion while Amex was recorded at $22 billion. Each holding now accounts for roughly 5% of Berkshire’s net worth, akin to its weighting long ago.Assume, for a moment, I had made a similarly-sized investment mistake in the 1990s, one that flat-lined and simply retained its $1.3 billion value in 2022. (An example would be a high-grade 30-year bond.) That disappointing investment would now represent an insignificant 0.3% of Berkshire’s net worth and would be delivering to us an unchanged $80 million or so of annual income.The lesson for investors: The weeds wither away in significance as the flowers bloom. Over time, it takes just a few winners to work wonders. And, yes, it helps to start early and live into your 90s as well.The Past Year in BriefBerkshire had a good year in 2022. The company’s operating earnings – our term for income calculated using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”), exclusive of capital gains or losses from equity holdings – set a record at $30.8 billion. Charlie and I focus on this operational figure and urge you to do so as well. The GAAP figure, absent our adjustment, fluctuates wildly and capriciously at every reporting date. Note its acrobatic behavior in 2022, which is in no way unusual:The GAAP earnings are 100% misleading when viewed quarterly or even annually. Capital gains, to be sure, have been hugely important to Berkshire over past decades, and we expect them to be meaningfully positive in future decades. But their quarter-by-quarter gyrations, regularly and mindlessly headlined by media, totally misinform investors.A second positive development for Berkshire last year was our purchase of Alleghany Corporation, a property-casualty insurer captained by Joe Brandon. I’ve worked with Joe in the past, and he understands both Berkshire  and insurance. Alleghany delivers special value to us because Berkshire’s unmatched financial strength allows its insurance subsidiaries to follow valuable and enduring investment strategies unavailable to virtually all competitors.Aided by Alleghany, our insurance float increased during 2022 from $147 billion to $164 billion. With disciplined underwriting, these funds have a decent chance of being cost-free over time. Since purchasing our first property-casualty insurer in 1967, Berkshire’s float has increased 8,000-fold through acquisitions, operations and innovations. Though not recognized in our financial statements, this float has been an extraordinary asset for Berkshire. New shareholders can get an understanding of its value by reading our annually updated explanation of float on page A-2.* * * * * * * * * * * *A very minor gain in per-share intrinsic value took place in 2022 through Berkshire share repurchases as well as similar moves at Apple and American Express, both significant investees of ours. At Berkshire, we directly increased your interest in our unique collection of businesses by repurchasing 1.2% of the company’s outstanding shares. At Apple and Amex, repurchases increased Berkshire’s ownership a bit without any cost to us.The math isn’t complicated: When the share count goes down, your interest in our many businesses goes up. Every small bit helps if repurchases are made at value-accretive prices. Just as surely, when a company overpays for repurchases, the continuing shareholders lose. At such times, gains flow only to the selling shareholders and to the friendly, but expensive, investment banker who recommended the foolish purchases.Gains from value-accretive repurchases, it should be emphasized, benefit all owners – in every respect. Imagine, if you will, three fully-informed shareholders of a local auto dealership, one of whom manages the business. Imagine, further, that one of the passive owners wishes to sell his interest back to the company at a price attractive to the two continuing shareholders. When completed, has this transaction harmed anyone? Is the manager somehow favored over the continuing passive owners? Has the public been hurt?When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive).Almost endless details of Berkshire’s 2022 operations are laid out on pages K-33 – K-66. Charlie and I, along with many Berkshire shareholders, enjoy poring over the many facts and figures laid out in that section. These pages are not, however, required reading. There are many Berkshire centimillionaires and, yes, billionaires who have never studied our financial figures. They simply know that Charlie and I – along with our families and close friends – continue to have very significant investments in Berkshire, and they trust us to treat their money as we do our own.And that is a promise we can make.* * * * * * * * * * * *Finally, an important warning: Even the operating earnings figure that we favor can easily be manipulated by managers who wish to do so. Such tampering is often thought of as sophisticated by CEOs, directors and their advisors. Reporters and analysts embrace its existence as well. Beating “expectations” is heralded as a managerial triumph.That activity is disgusting. It requires no talent to manipulate numbers: Only a deep desire to deceive is required. “Bold imaginative accounting,” as a CEO once described his deception to me, has become one of the shames of capitalism.58 Years – and a Few FiguresIn 1965, Berkshire was a one-trick pony, the owner of a venerable – but doomed – New England textile operation. With that business on a death march, Berkshire needed an immediate fresh start. Looking back, I was slow to recognize the severity of its problems.And then came a stroke of good luck: National Indemnity became available in 1967, and we shifted our resources toward insurance and other non-textile operations.Thus began our journey to 2023, a bumpy road involving a combination of continuous savings by our owners (that is, by their retaining earnings), the power of compounding, our avoidance of major mistakes and – most important of all – the American Tailwind. America would have done fine without Berkshire. The reverse is not true.Berkshire now enjoys major ownership in an unmatched collection of huge and diversified businesses. Let’s first look at the 5,000 or so publicly-held companies that trade daily on NASDAQ, the NYSE and related venues. Within this group is housed the members of the S&P 500 Index, an elite collection of large and well-known American companies.In aggregate, the 500 earned $1.8 trillion in 2021. I don’t yet have the final results for 2022. Using, therefore, the 2021 figures, only 128 of the 500 (including Berkshire itself) earned $3 billion or more. Indeed, 23 lost money.At yearend 2022, Berkshire was the largest owner of eight of these giants: American Express, Bank of America, Chevron, Coca-Cola, HP Inc., Moody’s, Occidental Petroleum and Paramount Global.In addition to those eight investees, Berkshire owns 100% of BNSF and 92% of BH Energy, each with earnings that exceed the $3 billion mark noted above ($5.9 billion at BNSF and$4.3 billion at BHE). Were these companies publicly-owned, they would replace two present members of the 500. All told, our ten controlled and non-controlled behemoths leave Berkshire more broadly aligned with the country’s economic future than is the case at any other U.S. company. (This calculation leaves aside “fiduciary” operations such as pension funds and investment companies.) In addition, Berkshire’s insurance operation, though conducted through many individually-managed subsidiaries, has a value comparable to BNSF or BHE.As for the future, Berkshire will always hold a boatload of cash and U.S. Treasury bills along with a wide array of businesses. We will also avoid behavior that could result in any uncomfortable cash needs at inconvenient times, including financial panics and unprecedented insurance losses. Our CEO will always be the Chief Risk Officer – a task it is irresponsible to delegate. Additionally, our future CEOs will have a significant part of their net worth in Berkshire shares, bought with their own money. And yes, our shareholders will continue to save and prosper by retaining earnings.At Berkshire, there will be no finish line.Some Surprising Facts About Federal TaxesDuring the decade ending in 2021, the United States Treasury received about $32.3 trillion in taxes while it spent $43.9 trillion.Though economists, politicians and many of the public have opinions about the consequences of that huge imbalance, Charlie and I plead ignorance and firmly believe that near-term economic and market forecasts are worse than useless. Our job is to manage Berkshire’s operations and finances in a manner that will achieve an acceptable result over time and that will preserve the company’s unmatched staying power when financial panics or severe worldwide recessions occur. Berkshire also offers some modest protection from runaway inflation, but this attribute is far from perfect. Huge and entrenched fiscal deficits have consequences.The $32 trillion of revenue was garnered by the Treasury through individual income taxes (48%), social security and related receipts (3412%), corporate income tax payments (812%) and a wide variety of lesser levies. Berkshire’s contribution via the corporate income tax was $32 billion during the decade, almost exactly a tenth of 1% of all money that the Treasury collected.And that means – brace yourself – had there been roughly 1,000 taxpayers in the U.S. matching Berkshire’s payments, no other businesses nor any of the country’s 131 million households would have needed to pay any taxes to the federal government. Not a dime.* * * * * * * * * * * *Millions, billions, trillions – we all know the words, but the sums involved are almost impossible to comprehend. Let’s put physical dimensions to the numbers:- If you convert $1 million into newly-printed $100 bills, you will have a stack that reaches your chest.- Perform the same exercise with $1 billion – this is getting exciting! – and the stack reaches about 34 of a mile into the sky.- Finally, imagine piling up $32 billion, the total of Berkshire’s 2012-21 federal income tax payments. Now the stack grows to more than 21 miles in height, about three times the level at which commercial airplanes usually cruise.When it comes to federal taxes, individuals who own Berkshire can unequivocally state “I gave at the office.”* * * * * * * * * * * *At Berkshire we hope and expect to pay much more in taxes during the next decade. We owe the country no less: America’s dynamism has made a huge contribution to whatever success Berkshire has achieved – a contribution Berkshire will always need. We count on the American Tailwind and, though it has been becalmed from time to time, its propelling force has always returned.I have been investing for 80 years – more than one-third of our country’s lifetime. Despite our citizens’ penchant – almost enthusiasm – for self-criticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America. And I doubt very much that any reader of this letter will have a different experience in the future.Nothing Beats Having a Great PartnerCharlie and I think pretty much alike. But what it takes me a page to explain, he sums up in a sentence. His version, moreover, is always more clearly reasoned and also more artfully – some might add bluntly – stated.Here are a few of his thoughts, many lifted from a very recent podcast:- The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor.- If you don’t see the world the way it is, it’s like judging something through a distorted lens.- All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there. And a related thought: Early on, write your desired obituary – and then behave accordingly.- If you don’t care whether you are rational or not, you won’t work on it. Then you will stay irrational and get lousy results.- Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage.- You can learn a lot from dead people. Read of the deceased you admire and detest.- Don’t bail away in a sinking boat if you can swim to one that is seaworthy.- A great company keeps working after you are not; a mediocre company won’t do that.- Warren and I don’t focus on the froth of the market. We seek out good long-term investments and stubbornly hold them for a long time.- Ben Graham said, “Day to day, the stock market is a voting machine; in the long term it’s a weighing machine.” If you keep making something more valuable, then some wise person is going to notice it and start buying.- There is no such thing as a 100% sure thing when investing. Thus, the use of leverage is dangerous. A string of wonderful numbers times zero will always equal zero. Don’t count on getting rich twice.- You don’t, however, need to own a lot of things in order to get rich.- You have to keep learning if you want to become a great investor. When the world changes, you must change.- Warren and I hated railroad stocks for decades, but the world changed and finally the country had four huge railroads of vital importance to the American economy. We were slow to recognize the change, but better late than never.- Finally, I will add two short sentences by Charlie that have been his decision-clinchers for decades: “Warren, think more about it. You’re smart and I’m right.”And so it goes. I never have a phone call with Charlie without learning something. And, while he makes me think, he also makes me laugh.* * * * * * * * * * * *I will add to Charlie’s list a rule of my own:   Find   a   very   smart   high-grade partner – preferably slightly older than you – and then listen very carefully to what he says.A Family Gathering in OmahaCharlie and I are shameless. Last year, at our first shareholder get-together in three years, we greeted you with our usual commercial hustle.From the opening bell, we went straight for your wallet. In short order, our See’s kiosk sold you eleven tons of nourishing peanut brittle and chocolates. In our P.T. Barnum pitch, we promised you longevity. After all, what else but candy from See’s could account for Charlie and me making it to 99 and 92?I know you can’t wait to hear the specifics of last year’s hustle.On Friday, the doors were open from noon until 5 p.m., and our candy counters rang up 2,690 individual sales. On Saturday, See’s registered an additional 3,931 transactions between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., despite the fact that 612 of the 912 operating hours occurred while our movie and the question-and-answer session were limiting commercial traffic.Do the math: See’s rang up about 10 sales per minute during its prime operating time (racking up $400,309 of volume during the two days), with all the goods purchased at a single location selling products that haven’t been materially altered in 101 years. What worked for See’s in the days of Henry Ford’s model T works now.* * * * * * * * * * * *Charlie, I, and the entire Berkshire bunch look forward to seeing you in Omaha on May 5-6. We will have a good time and so will you.February 25, 2023 Warren E. Buffett Chairman of the Board","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":209,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":869207141,"gmtCreate":1632287917583,"gmtModify":1676530743943,"author":{"id":"3584357430867033","authorId":"3584357430867033","name":"HODLFTW","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","crmLevel":3,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3584357430867033","idStr":"3584357430867033"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Another \"invite you to tent, glare into my crystal ball and see your 10x return future\"?...","listText":"Another \"invite you to tent, glare into my crystal ball and see your 10x return future\"?...","text":"Another \"invite you to tent, glare into my crystal ball and see your 10x return future\"?...","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":7,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/869207141","repostId":"2169639321","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"2169639321","pubTimestamp":1632282060,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2169639321?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2021-09-22 11:41","market":"us","language":"en","title":"1 Growth Stock That Could Produce 10X Returns","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2169639321","media":"Motley Fool","summary":"The future looks bright for this e-commerce company.","content":"<p><b>Global-E Online</b> (NASDAQ:GLBE) went public in mid-May at $25 per share. Since then, the stock's price has soared over 200%, as investors have bought shares of this e-commerce company hand over fist, and it's easy to see why. Online shopping is <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AONE.U\">one</a> of the most pervasive trends of our time, and the market is far from tapped out.</p>\n<p>However, even though the share price has tripled, it's not too late to add Global-E to your own portfolio. In fact, I think this recent IPO stock could still grow tenfold over the next 10 years. Here's why.</p>\n<h2>Managing cross-border commerce is a big market opportunity</h2>\n<p>Domestic e-commerce is fairly straightforward, but cross-border sales are a different story. Merchants have to navigate the complexities of international logistics, language barriers, and various regulatory requirements. Traditionally, businesses have relied upon several service providers to solve these problems, but Global-E takes a more comprehensive&nbsp;approach.</p>\n<p>The company offers an end-to-end solution for cross-border commerce. Its platform integrates with a seller's online storefront, localizing details like the language, pricing, and shipping options on a market-by-market basis. Global-E also manages import duties and taxes, and it provides after-sale customer service and returns management.</p>\n<p>Why does this matter? International shoppers typically represent 30%&nbsp;of web traffic to global e-commerce sites, but international sales usually comprise just 5% to 10%&nbsp;of total revenue. In other words, current solutions fail to help sellers fully capitalize on that opportunity -- and it's a big opportunity. According to <b>Forrester Research</b>, cross-border e-commerce spend will reach $736 billion&nbsp;in 2023.</p>\n<h2>Global-E has a strong competitive edge</h2>\n<p>Global-E has a more holistic solution than any of its rivals, and the company's numbers back that claim. By optimizing the shopping experience for international consumers in over 200 destination markets, Global-E helps businesses accelerate cross-border conversions, often by more than&nbsp;60%.</p>\n<p>This creates a flywheel effect. By facilitating transactions and logistics across a range of geographies, Global-E collects market-specific data relating to consumer preferences. Using that data, its platform leans on artificial intelligence to surface relevant insights for merchants, helping them further boost international conversion rates.</p>\n<p>This accomplishes two things: First, Global-E makes money by taking a cut of gross merchandise value, so it wins when its merchants succeed. Second, as Global-E's AI models become more intelligent, its ability to drive cross-border sales should improve, drawing even more merchants to its platform.</p>\n<p>This virtuous cycle has already been a powerful growth driver. As of the most recent quarter, Global-E had 522 merchants on its platform, up 85% from the end of 2019. That uptick in adoption has powered an impressive top-line performance.</p>\n<table>\n <thead>\n  <tr>\n   <th><p>Metric</p></th>\n   <th><p>Q2 2020 (TTM)</p></th>\n   <th><p>Q2 2021 (TTM)</p></th>\n   <th><p>Change</p></th>\n  </tr>\n </thead>\n <tbody>\n  <tr>\n   <td width=\"156\"><p>Revenue</p></td>\n   <td width=\"156\"><p>$90.1 million</p></td>\n   <td width=\"156\"><p>$190.3 million</p></td>\n   <td width=\"156\"><p>111%</p></td>\n  </tr>\n </tbody>\n</table>\n<p>Data source: Global-E SEC filings. TTM: trailing-12-months. CAGR: compound annual growth rate.</p>\n<p>Global-E's gross profit margin has expanded dramatically over time, rising from 22% in 2018&nbsp;to 36%&nbsp;in the most recent quarter. Management attributes&nbsp;this to the growing volume of its market-specific data. And the company is well-positioned to maintain that momentum.</p>\n<p>The Global-E platform is a very sticky product. Gross retention has been over 98% since 2018, meaning less than 2% of customers cancel service each year. And net retention hit 172%&nbsp;in 2020, indicating a 72% uptick in average customer spend. In both cases, these impressive figures evidence the value that Global-E creates for its clients.</p>\n<p>Moreover, the company recently signed a partnership agreement with <b>Shopify</b>, the most popular&nbsp;e-commerce software vendor in the United States, whereby Global-E will be the exclusive provider of cross-border solutions for Shopify merchants. This could be a significant growth driver for both companies -- the Shopify platform currently supports 1.7 million merchants, each of which could easily become a Global-E customer.</p>\n<h2>The bottom line</h2>\n<p>Global-E stock trades at a pricey 59 times sales, but given the company's strong competitive position and massive market opportunity, that valuation may not look so crazy in hindsight.</p>\n<p>Consider this scenario: To produce tenfold returns, Global-E would need to achieve a market cap of $110 billion, and I think that's possible. If the company can grow sales at 40% per year through 2031, total revenue would reach $5.5 billion. Assuming the stock trades for a more reasonable 20 times sales at that point, Global-E would have a market cap of exactly $110 billion.</p>\n<p>Of course, no one knows the future, and I've speculated on several metrics over a great length of time. But it's not hard for me to imagine this scenario playing out over the next decade. That's why I think this growth stock is a smart long-term investment.</p>","source":"fool_stock","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>1 Growth Stock That Could Produce 10X Returns</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\n1 Growth Stock That Could Produce 10X Returns\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2021-09-22 11:41 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/09/21/1-growth-stock-that-could-produce-10x-returns/><strong>Motley Fool</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Global-E Online (NASDAQ:GLBE) went public in mid-May at $25 per share. Since then, the stock's price has soared over 200%, as investors have bought shares of this e-commerce company hand over fist, ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/09/21/1-growth-stock-that-could-produce-10x-returns/\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"GLBE":"Global-E Online Ltd."},"source_url":"https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/09/21/1-growth-stock-that-could-produce-10x-returns/","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"2169639321","content_text":"Global-E Online (NASDAQ:GLBE) went public in mid-May at $25 per share. Since then, the stock's price has soared over 200%, as investors have bought shares of this e-commerce company hand over fist, and it's easy to see why. Online shopping is one of the most pervasive trends of our time, and the market is far from tapped out.\nHowever, even though the share price has tripled, it's not too late to add Global-E to your own portfolio. In fact, I think this recent IPO stock could still grow tenfold over the next 10 years. Here's why.\nManaging cross-border commerce is a big market opportunity\nDomestic e-commerce is fairly straightforward, but cross-border sales are a different story. Merchants have to navigate the complexities of international logistics, language barriers, and various regulatory requirements. Traditionally, businesses have relied upon several service providers to solve these problems, but Global-E takes a more comprehensive approach.\nThe company offers an end-to-end solution for cross-border commerce. Its platform integrates with a seller's online storefront, localizing details like the language, pricing, and shipping options on a market-by-market basis. Global-E also manages import duties and taxes, and it provides after-sale customer service and returns management.\nWhy does this matter? International shoppers typically represent 30% of web traffic to global e-commerce sites, but international sales usually comprise just 5% to 10% of total revenue. In other words, current solutions fail to help sellers fully capitalize on that opportunity -- and it's a big opportunity. According to Forrester Research, cross-border e-commerce spend will reach $736 billion in 2023.\nGlobal-E has a strong competitive edge\nGlobal-E has a more holistic solution than any of its rivals, and the company's numbers back that claim. By optimizing the shopping experience for international consumers in over 200 destination markets, Global-E helps businesses accelerate cross-border conversions, often by more than 60%.\nThis creates a flywheel effect. By facilitating transactions and logistics across a range of geographies, Global-E collects market-specific data relating to consumer preferences. Using that data, its platform leans on artificial intelligence to surface relevant insights for merchants, helping them further boost international conversion rates.\nThis accomplishes two things: First, Global-E makes money by taking a cut of gross merchandise value, so it wins when its merchants succeed. Second, as Global-E's AI models become more intelligent, its ability to drive cross-border sales should improve, drawing even more merchants to its platform.\nThis virtuous cycle has already been a powerful growth driver. As of the most recent quarter, Global-E had 522 merchants on its platform, up 85% from the end of 2019. That uptick in adoption has powered an impressive top-line performance.\n\n\n\nMetric\nQ2 2020 (TTM)\nQ2 2021 (TTM)\nChange\n\n\n\n\nRevenue\n$90.1 million\n$190.3 million\n111%\n\n\n\nData source: Global-E SEC filings. TTM: trailing-12-months. CAGR: compound annual growth rate.\nGlobal-E's gross profit margin has expanded dramatically over time, rising from 22% in 2018 to 36% in the most recent quarter. Management attributes this to the growing volume of its market-specific data. And the company is well-positioned to maintain that momentum.\nThe Global-E platform is a very sticky product. Gross retention has been over 98% since 2018, meaning less than 2% of customers cancel service each year. And net retention hit 172% in 2020, indicating a 72% uptick in average customer spend. In both cases, these impressive figures evidence the value that Global-E creates for its clients.\nMoreover, the company recently signed a partnership agreement with Shopify, the most popular e-commerce software vendor in the United States, whereby Global-E will be the exclusive provider of cross-border solutions for Shopify merchants. This could be a significant growth driver for both companies -- the Shopify platform currently supports 1.7 million merchants, each of which could easily become a Global-E customer.\nThe bottom line\nGlobal-E stock trades at a pricey 59 times sales, but given the company's strong competitive position and massive market opportunity, that valuation may not look so crazy in hindsight.\nConsider this scenario: To produce tenfold returns, Global-E would need to achieve a market cap of $110 billion, and I think that's possible. If the company can grow sales at 40% per year through 2031, total revenue would reach $5.5 billion. Assuming the stock trades for a more reasonable 20 times sales at that point, Global-E would have a market cap of exactly $110 billion.\nOf course, no one knows the future, and I've speculated on several metrics over a great length of time. But it's not hard for me to imagine this scenario playing out over the next decade. That's why I think this growth stock is a smart long-term investment.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":140,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":151036305,"gmtCreate":1625056657607,"gmtModify":1703734985994,"author":{"id":"3584357430867033","authorId":"3584357430867033","name":"HODLFTW","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","crmLevel":3,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3584357430867033","idStr":"3584357430867033"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"TLDR","listText":"TLDR","text":"TLDR","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":2,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/151036305","repostId":"1100563900","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"1100563900","pubTimestamp":1624956396,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1100563900?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2021-06-29 16:46","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Facebook: Simply Unstoppable","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1100563900","media":"seekingalpha","summary":"The #StopHateforProfit Campaign, antitrust allegations, Apple IDFA issue, and a host of other historical issues have not stopped the social media giant and will not stop it.Despite an impressive rally delivering 65% since the start of CY20 and 26% YTD, Facebook remains undervalued relative to its peers and the FAANG stocks with the best forward estimates.The strong moat originating from their sheer user base, and sizeable TAMs in E-commerce, VR/AR, digital assets , cumulatively make for a compel","content":"<p><b>Summary</b></p>\n<ul>\n <li>The #StopHateforProfit Campaign, antitrust allegations, Apple IDFA issue, and a host of other historical issues have not stopped the social media giant and will not stop it.</li>\n <li>Despite an impressive rally delivering 65% since the start of CY20 and 26% YTD, Facebook remains undervalued relative to its peers and the FAANG stocks with the best forward estimates.</li>\n <li>The strong moat originating from their sheer user base, and sizeable TAMs in E-commerce, VR/AR, digital assets (DIEM), cumulatively make for a compelling growth story.</li>\n <li>Although the company is highly controversial and rightfully so, this article focuses more on the quantitative analysis and less on the morals and ethics behind this investment. That, we shall leave to you.</li>\n</ul>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/3b3414073b72a391e760025594ec111f\" tg-width=\"768\" tg-height=\"528\"><span>nemke/E+ via Getty Images</span></p>\n<p><b>Investment Thesis</b></p>\n<p>Facebook (FB) has had a volatile trading period the past few years with a general uptrend, delivering shareholders nice returns whilst subjecting them to a few major dips which presented investors an opportunity for a steal. Despite the controversy and headline risks every now and then, the company has been able to battle through them and emerge ever so stronger. The company’s financials have been holding up and shows no sign of stoppage anytime soon. In a time as such, with significant uncertainty in the macro environment and inflation fears creeping up, we believe that shifting some of your assets to high cashflow generating companies is a wise strategy that will pay off. Growth and value are 2 different things, and there still exists growth companies that are undervalued and can still generate substantial cashflow, and we believe Facebook is one of them. The company also remains to be one of the more attractive blue-chip stocks compared to the others in the FAANG. We employ a 3–5-year outlook and have been bullish since USD$200/share. Let’s Begin!</p>\n<p><b>What is Facebook</b></p>\n<p>Known to all, Facebook is a social media giant with a family of products including the likes of Facebook, Instagram,WhatsApp, Messenger, and now Oculus. The firm essentially has a stronghold in the social media industry and has an impressive DAP of2.72 BN as of Q1’21and MAP of 3.45 BN.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/e3d08f4df186c4705a5300f40d6b8a5e\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"429\"><span>(Source:FB Q1’21 Presentation)</span></p>\n<p>The world has7.874 BNpeople as of the time of this writing and that would mean that 43.8% of all the people in the world use some form of product from Facebook’s portfolio in the past 30 days. On a daily basis, 34.5% of the people in the world use it. If that isn’t a sticky service, nothing really is. If we were to focus on the usage of the Facebook app solely, 23.8% of the world logs into the app daily based on DAUs.</p>\n<p>The firm was founded in 2004 and generates the majority of their revenue from advertisements. If you have watched the social dilemma on Netflix, you would realize that Facebook’s real customer isn’t everyday users. Instead, users are the product, and they are being sold to advertisers. The company has created such an engaging and sticky service that users are more than happy to be using their apps, despite knowing that their data is being sold from one company to another. As appalling as it is, they’re indifferent to it all and still find the value in using the company’s products on a daily basis – keeping in touch with distant relatives, chatting with friends, staying up to date with the latest fashion trends and news… (According to the&nbsp;Pew Research Center, more than a 1/3 of US adults say they get their news regularly from Facebook)</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/7cb9d05bb00f3038cec301c72ef56827\" tg-width=\"608\" tg-height=\"378\"><span>(Source:Pew Research Center)</span></p>\n<p>To Facebook, this is equally as good as the more users, the wider the ‘product’ base that they have to offer their customers - advertisers. Advertisers are also indifferent to how Facebook attains its data, so long as Facebook’s targeting metrics and trackers are working well, the more likely it is that they are able to generate conversions. The more conversions, the more sales for them, the more ads they continue to pay for, the more revenue Facebook generates. Win-Win-Win, their apps are the bait, and the product (users), customers (advertisers), and supplier (Facebook), all walk away winners. It’s a remarkable business model that has stood the test of time and no matter the amount of controversy around the business, founders, and its practices, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and for one simple reason: Users likely can’t do without Facebook’s products whether they are willing to admit it or not.</p>\n<p>When we look back in the past to reflect on how the #StopHateForProfit Campaign turned out for the company, it is apparent that the impact it had on the top and bottom line were both minimal. The boycott was one that arose due to Facebook’s bad hate speech regulations and policing, and because of the laissez-faire attitude toward posts from then President, Donald Trump. More than&nbsp;1000 companies publicly committed&nbsp;to boycotting the social media giant in June/July (coinciding with end Q2 and start Q3) and many of the top 100 advertisers based on ad spend such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Coca-Cola, all revised their budgets downwards.</p>\n<p>Despite this, Facebook&nbsp;beat on Q2 earnings&nbsp;and saw an increase of&nbsp;10.7% YOY. In its forward guidance, the company also announced that for July, they were anticipating a slowdown in YoY growth of 17% but was still due to see a 10% increase. They alsoanticipatedthe slowdown in growth to last through till October. However, the company did not attribute this slowdown to the boycott specifically but to 3 other major headwinds. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that even for Q3’20, the firm saw an impressive 21.6% rise in its top line, with the bottom line still registering a 12.2% improvement in NPM for Q2’20 YoY and a 200 bps NPM improvement in Q3.</p>\n<p>The results are clear and indicative of a few things. The boycott by the largest companies did little to Facebook’s financial story as they still managed to register growth and did not see significant pullbacks that were material. This can be tied to the fact that most of Facebook’s advertisers are SMBs. Although certain few SMBs did join the boycott, most didn’t, and the firm still had their impressive 9 million + customer base to rely on. If anything, this also suggests that despite what any SMB stands for and whether they agree with a social cause or not, it is hard for them to find alternatives that they can shift to on a similar pricing scale. Big brands can easily pivot to other advertisements such as TV and radio commercials but SMBs simply can’t because of smaller budgets. Lastly, it is now clear that the campaign affected Facebook’s reputation more so than it did its cashflow.</p>\n<p><b>Risks</b></p>\n<p>Other risks that the company may face would be future antitrust lawsuits. As it is, the company is already facing allegations of being a monopoly based on their aggressive acquisitive history having acquired more than90 other companiessince inception. They were alsofined US$5 BNby the FTC in 2019 and were required to adopt their policies and employ new protections for the users and their data that has been shared.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f694ca79d59162e95f05335ebefbca3d\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"384\"><span>(Source: TIKR.com)</span></p>\n<p>Though representative of a historic penalty and the largest ever imposed on a company for violating user’s privacy rights, the US$5BN was a drop in the bucket for the giant that went on to generate US$70+ BN dollars for the year.</p>\n<p>The current issues that they have with Apple’s new iOS changes and the IDFA implications are also likely not going to have a substantial impact on the firm. The Identifier for Advertisers [IDFA] is a random device identifier assigned by Apple to a user's device. Advertisers use this to track data so they can deliver customized advertising on mobile. With the new iOS changes, Apple essentially programmed it such that each app that wants to use these identifiers will have to ask users to opt in for tracking when the app is first launched. If users opt out, the app can’t track certain data and Facebook will have a smaller database of points to rely upon. As consumer preferences change, so will Facebook’s targeting that relies on IDFAs get worse and less effective due to outdated data points.</p>\n<p>According to aCNBC article:</p>\n<blockquote>\n Most critically at stake for Facebook is what’s known as view-through conversions. This metric is used by ad-tech companies to measure how many users saw an ad, did not immediately click on it, but later made a purchase related to that ad.”\n</blockquote>\n<p>When the conversion is made later on, the data IDFA for that particular user is then shared by the retailer to Facebook which is then used by the company to see if it matches the IDFA of the user who saw the ad. If they pair, it indicates that the ad was useful in generating a conversion. This data performance is then relayed to advertisers so that they can tweak their ad strategies accordingly. Withas much as 96% of usersanticipated to opt out of tracking on all apps, this would mean that mobile ads on 3rdparty apps may no longer be as useful if Facebook cannot really judge its effectiveness anymore. The more ineffective the ads become, the less conversions for retailers, and the more they pivot to other advertising platforms, which will impact the revenues for the firm.</p>\n<p>However, Facebook has disclosed that this will particularly only affect one form of advertisement which relies heavily on the IDFA, known as Audience Networks. Fortunately, the audience network segment only represents less than 10% of the firm’s total revenues. With the impact estimating to cost a drop in50% of all ads deliveredand hence sales from this segment, this would atbest represent a 5% drop in their total revenues. With that said, we do not anticipate that this will be present significant impact moving forward and the firm can easily recoup the 5% loss at worse by focusing on increasing ARPUs and user engagement to save their core business.</p>\n<p>Though Facebook started by disclosing that they anticipated the impact on their revenues to be large at first, this no longer seems to be the case. If anything, history has shown us that Mark is not one to back down and if he doesn’t get his way, he damn well will find another way to minimise loss and increase revenue generation in other segments to make up for it. If you aren’t too involved in the technicalities, we think it’s safe to bet on the jockey in this case. Besides, AR / VR growth,WhatsApp monetization, Reels monetization, further user growth in less developed countries away from the legacy North America and Europe region can very well pick up the lost (US$5BN) in sales.</p>\n<p><b>Moat</b></p>\n<p>As mentioned above, the DAUs and MAUs for Facebook are very impressive with a large portion of the world using at least 1 of their products. The moat for the business relies on the wide user base that Facebook has meticulously built over the course of 17 years. With any new product that they have, the firm can easily roll it out to their database of users and expect demand to pick up in a matter of weeks, maybe even days. That is the power of the network of Facebook that really can’t be valued.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/2057a83640201edd89430e754f3f8525\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\"><span>(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)</span></p>\n<p>Despite the controversy, endless allegations, and negative headlines one after the other, the numbers don’t lie. DAUs have been increasing every single quarter, with the fastest growth observed in Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world. US &amp; Canada growth has slowed as it nears saturation levels, and this is perfectly normal and to be expected. The way we anticipate Facebook to grow their core cash cow business moving forward is clean. 1) Focus on growing ARPUs in their saturated legacy areas (US &amp; Canada and Europe) as well as 2) Increase User Growth by Geography in their growth areas (Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the World). Unsurprisingly, Facebook has been focused on doing just that.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ce3456321584d2eea288f7e410215571\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"388\"><span>(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)</span></p>\n<p>When we look to the infamous metric for judging social media companies and their performance – ARPUs, we can see that in the legacy areas, ARPUs have been increasing at a faster pace than compared to growth areas. This falls in line with point number 1 as mentioned above. The legacy areas have already reached saturation levels and user growth is unable to grow at astounding rates anymore. However, since this represent areas that are more developed and generally have higher disposable incomes on the average, focusing on increasing ARPUs and monetizing advertisers is the right strategy and a very feasible one. Though the growth areas are also seeing ARPUs grow YoY as they should, they are not at the same pace as in the US &amp; Canada and Europe. When we look to revenue generated by geography below, this confirms the thesis that revenue is growing faster than user base in those areas, and since ARPU equal to (Total Revenue from that Geography / Number of Users in that area), so long revenue is growing at a faster pace than the user base, they should increase meaningfully.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/84eaec3de9bafd595bf4ecf9ffdae16a\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\"><span>(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)</span></p>\n<p>When we look to the slide below, it is also apparent that user numbers are growing much faster in Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world, away from the legacy areas. Across 2 years, MAUs which is the broadest business performance metric employed by Facebook, grew 22.4% and 25.4% in the growth areas while they only grew a mere 6.6% in US &amp; Canada and 10.2% in Europe.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/2d72be6c3ca7eb809567503ffc1d4ed9\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"395\"><span>(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)</span></p>\n<p>If Facebook can continue to grow their user engagement numbers in the growth areas whilst maximizing ARPUs in legacy areas, the company can easily ensure that the core advertising model will remain the cash cow of the business, funding growth for their other product developments.</p>\n<p><b>Growth Tactics</b></p>\n<p>When we look to potential growth Facebook has, the company isn’t short of any. Facebook has moved to monetizeWhatsApp, where they plan to generate fees from payments made within the app itself as well as through in-app status advertisements. The company is essentially trying to integrate the growth and TAM of the E-commerce market more seamlessly into their family of products including the likes ofWhatsApp. ThroughFacebook Pay, users can now engage in peer-to-peer payments withinWhatsApp itself at no cost. However, when businesses receive a fee from customers through the app itself, they will then have to pay a small ‘processing fee’ to Facebook and this is where it profits. This is the same method that is being employed by Shopify and all the other payment processing channels just that it is now being done locally inWhatsApp itself.WhatsApp payments has launched in Brazil, the 2nd largest market by users and the fee stands at 3.99%.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4d1d27ff399e3e6fdfbc44a3ff1fb6e6\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"557\"><span>(Source:Facebook Newsroom)</span></p>\n<p>The firm has also been trying to grow their presence in the E-commerce market and reduce the friction customers experience when clicking through ads on its platforms. Both Instagram checkout and Facebook shops are aimed at doing just that. Their shops solutions are also expanding toWhatsApp, and the marketplace as observed above. The company sees a major shift to online shopping even after the grand reopening of the economies. As part of its effort over the years, they now have 1.2M active shops across their platforms and more than 300M monthly shop visitors. Thelatest releasestates that:</p>\n<blockquote>\n Soon, we’ll give businesses in select countries the option to showcase their Shop inWhatsApp. In the US, we’ll enable them to bring Shops products into Marketplace, helping them reach the more than 1 billion people globally who visit each month.\n</blockquote>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/38d87012cd9e376a0bed27a095b01828\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"418\"><span>(Source:Facebook Newsroom)</span></p>\n<p>What’s even more fascinating is the fact that Facebook now plans to integrate new technologies such as AR Dynamic Ads to power the future of shopping. New visual discovery tools on their platforms like Instagram will help customers find new products that they resonate with faster than ever before and help them to visualize their products with AR experiences that they have been working on for a long time now.</p>\n<p>Their continued expansion in the AR/VR market along with the rollout of DIEM, their native digital currency functioning as a stablecoin that was once under the “Libra Project” also presents good growth opportunity in the near future. Facebook is also looking to introducepodcasts and live audio streamsas part of the beginning of their audio journey. In short, Facebook still has a lot of room to grow moving forward apart from looking to squeeze out more cash from their legacy advertising business model. However, as always, product development is one thing, but the financials do need to shape up as well and with Facebook it does.</p>\n<p><b>Financials</b></p>\n<p>Of the FAANG stock group, Facebook enjoys one of the highest margins. The company saw 80.55% in GM in Q1’21 and even in the past, it has enjoyed such high margins, trading between 80.5% to as high as 86.6% in FY17. The chart below also clearly indicates that the remarkable margins trickle down to the bottom line and aren’t wiped out due to operating expenses, registering a NPM of 35.7%.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1367468f26c73bde43f494b2b7fb49d6\" tg-width=\"635\" tg-height=\"467\"><span>Data by YCharts</span></p>\n<p>FB also routinely spends a large portion of their revenues on R&amp;D, reinvesting into the business YoY to further improve their products and innovate on new ones. In 2020 the R&amp;D expense represented 21.5% of total sales.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4b923685aa0489833ae8f50fcddf3601\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"384\"><span>(Source: TIKR.com)</span></p>\n<p>A large chunk of the firms’ revenues is also retained on the balance sheet which is then used over the years to funnel money to continue their acquisitive culture. Despite this, the strong cashflow that the firm enjoys allows it to stay at the top of their industry in terms of innovation whilst ensuring that their treasure trove of cash is growing should there be a need to deploy it. When we look to liquid cash that the firm holds (Cash &amp; Equivalents, and STI), Facebook has grown it at a tremendous CAGR of 26.2%. Net Debt has also just been becoming less of a concern over the years. To date, even after the pandemic, Facebook has no debt.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/13b40cadc31458233d0ea83ce4917c33\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"384\"><span>(Source: TIKR.com)</span></p>\n<p>Given the data above, it is evident that the firm has one of the most pristine balance sheets in the industry and in the whole stock market. The US$62 BN that they hold as cash presents itself as a massive buffer to cushion the impact of whatever comes their way, be it another acquisitive opportunity, or yet another fine. Either way, the company can weather any financial storm and near balance sheet issues aren’t a problem. Shareholders aren’t too pleased with the cash pile just sitting there and would instead rather the firm start paying a dividend or pick up the pace in share buybacks to maximize investor returns. Facebook has never paid a dividend in its entirety and although they may consider that moving forward, we anticipate that it is not a move that they will commit to. In any case, we ourselves hope that they commit to more share buybacks instead of moving to issue a dividend.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/3f5b82506a0385a1265c494b21462678\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"43\"><span>(Source:Q1 10-K Filing SEC)</span></p>\n<p>In their 10-K filing, the company expanded their SRP program to include an additional US$25 BN which will be added atop the US$8.6 BN remaining from a 2017 authorization. That amounts to a current authorized SRP valued at around US$33.6 BN and we anticipate that this may further increase substantially moving forward. Despite outstanding shares reducing overtime, a large part is offset by additional equity issued as part of SBC to employees. It is disappointing that the firm isn’t making more of a definitive move to put that cash pile to use but this is nonetheless not a major red flag.</p>\n<p><b>Valuations</b></p>\n<p>Being a blue-chip company with strong FCF, we would normally value the social media giant with a DCF model. Today, however, we will be looking at EV/Sales and P/E Ratios to try and justify its future valuation, looking 3 years out as always to end 2023.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0878b205b837634b7d2528f57ebe84fc\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"321\"><span>(Source:Seeking Alpha)</span></p>\n<p>Looking 3 years out to end 23, Facebook is projected to grow revenues at an average of 23.4%, with growth in the 30s for this fiscal year. That would mean that Facebook is anticipated to grow revenues to US$160.8 BN by end 2023, up 87% from what they delivered in FY20 in 3 years.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1707f8cfee45ce9ebb0e3ac961e78f48\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"338\"><span>(Source: TIKR.com)</span></p>\n<p>Since 2018, the firm has traded at an average EV/Sales of 8.85, and last exchanged hands at a multiple of 9.76. Although the firm is trading at a multiple above its mean and higher than any of the other stocks as part of the FAANG group, Facebook does have higher estimates than all the other companies in the near future as observed below. The data does not reflect estimates for 2023.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/444e1473e814530e2332cea02637af53\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"384\"><span>(Source: TIKR.com)</span></p>\n<p>Moreover, when we look further into the past all the way back to 2013, the company has historically traded at an average of 12.82 and even registered a high close to 22 in 2014. However, since we want to be conservative, but believe that the market has yet to really price Facebook for what it’s worth given all the headline risks in the media that have induced immediate selloffs without any fundamental reason, we will employ a multiple of 9.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8494d3084eed106a9cb0bff0f27cfe7a\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"384\"><span>(Source: TIKR.com)</span></p>\n<p>At an EV/Sales multiple of 9, that would put Facebook at a US$1.447 TRN dollar valuation by the end of 2023 and a share price of US$539, an upside of 58%.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/55014da5e82d1a67caaeb34766b35940\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"294\"><span>(Source:Seeking Alpha)</span></p>\n<p>When we look to revenue surprise and analyst estimate beat / miss trends, Facebook has quite the historical track record of surpassing estimates, having done so 10/12 times in the past 3 years. The average upside surprise stands at 3.59%. Assuming Facebook will continue to deliver the same upside surprise moving forward, a 3.59% beat to the top line estimate of 2023 would warrant revenues of US$166.57 BN. At the same EV/Sales ratio of 9, that would render a higher valuation of US$558.77 USD. Given that Facebook is very close to crossing the US$1 TRN dollar valuation mark, we anticipate this to be a very realistic price target.</p>\n<p>Now shifting on to another valuation method by P/E multiples, the valuation also paints a similar picture.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5d67f3c257657bc10ee6be38c16d2a1f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"207\"><span>(Source:Seeking Alpha)</span></p>\n<p>Turning to earnings estimates, the company is also projected to do high-teens digit growth for 2022 and 2023 and a close to 30% growth in the bottom line for this fiscal year.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ffe26a8eabec7045dc5a904497737623\" tg-width=\"635\" tg-height=\"501\"><span>Data by YCharts</span></p>\n<p>Despite trading at the highest EV / Sales ratio of the FAANG stocks, Facebook is trading at the lowest TTM normalized PE Ratio amongst its peers, with the inclusion of Microsoft (FANGMA). This is likely due to the market failing to internalize and appreciate the company’s high NPM and profitability. Currently trading at a P/E ratio of 29.14, this is also below its historical means of as high as 60+ in 2016.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/247661f12f62820f6266763f49531355\" tg-width=\"635\" tg-height=\"417\"><span>Data by YCharts</span></p>\n<p>However, given that earnings have improved dramatically since and likely won’t be revisiting those levels as seen from the forward estimates, we will stick with what we believe to be a fair multiple for the stickiest company in the world, 30. At a P/E ratio of 30, that would put the end 2023 share price somewhere near levels of US$531.</p>\n<p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ce908799f1bf9091b49b94e03db7e476\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"284\"><span>(Source:Seeking Alpha)</span></p>\n<p>However, because of a surprisingly good earnings-beat track record once again, this has to be factored in moving forward. Of the last 3 years, Facebook has beat earnings 11/12 times. The average beat comes in at 15.72%. If we were to stick to a similar but more conservative beat of say 7%, that would put 2023 normalized earnings at 18.93. The exact same P/E ratio would now warrant a realistic share price of US$567.8, an upside of 66.3%.</p>\n<p>With all 4 estimates using different methods and assumptions with different levels of conservatism employed delivering a potential share price anywhere between US$531 and US$568, it would be fair to conclude that this is a realistic price target for the cashflow king 3 years out into the future. At the low end of estimates of US$531, this is still indicative of a 55% upside.</p>\n<p><b>Investor Takeaways</b></p>\n<p>To conclude, we believe Facebook has a very strong future ahead and the projected numbers for both the Topline and Bottom line are indicative of potential upside. We place significant emphasis on forward estimates as markets are future discounting mechanisms that react accordingly. The company enjoys unbelievably high margins, has a pristine balance sheet with absolutely no debt, and is anticipated to keep raking in high revenues with strong cashflow numbers.</p>\n<p>With so many growth opportunities such as the monetization ofWhatsApp, AR/VR, shops, marketplace growth, DIEM, and the continued growth in its legacy advertisement business both in terms of MAP and ARPUs, Facebook is here to stay and is nowhere near exhausting its full potential. The sizeable TAMs in each of the different business segments combined with other opportunities such as Facebook Reels which we did not cover, and the fact that it has yet to have been monetized, all point to a bright future.</p>\n<p>That being said, it is a given that the company will face many other bumps along moving forward. Facebook will continue to be subjected to what we call ‘headline risks’ whereby the stock will be overly sold off to the downside based upon nothing fundamental but one-sided exaggerated narratives. This we believe presents the best time to pick up shares and accumulate for the long run. Facebook has been perceived to have engaged in a lot of dubious unethical behaviour surrounding user data but like we said, that is separate from the investment opportunity the company presents and we will leave that to you to decide. Granted that there are many reasons surrounding the company's beat-down reputation, the return on invested capital is a different story and the main one to be focused on when considering if a company is a good investment or not.</p>\n<p>End day, when it comes to blue-chip stocks that have a firm hold in the industry, good sticky products, and solid financials, it is hard for the stock not to trend up overtime so long as estimates paint a bright picture and most importantly, the markets continue to value them in the same rational way. This has not always been the case and can be easily seen from Microsoft’s outperformance hiatus when the Dot Com bubble crashed, and the stock took 17 years to put in a new high. Still, we believe blue chip stocks are a good bet as of now and should be a part of everyone’s portfolio, and Facebook presents the best buy of the FAANG from our perspective. Till next time!</p>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Facebook: Simply Unstoppable</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nFacebook: Simply Unstoppable\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2021-06-29 16:46 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4437000-facebook-simply-unstoppable><strong>seekingalpha</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Summary\n\nThe #StopHateforProfit Campaign, antitrust allegations, Apple IDFA issue, and a host of other historical issues have not stopped the social media giant and will not stop it.\nDespite an ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4437000-facebook-simply-unstoppable\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4437000-facebook-simply-unstoppable","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1100563900","content_text":"Summary\n\nThe #StopHateforProfit Campaign, antitrust allegations, Apple IDFA issue, and a host of other historical issues have not stopped the social media giant and will not stop it.\nDespite an impressive rally delivering 65% since the start of CY20 and 26% YTD, Facebook remains undervalued relative to its peers and the FAANG stocks with the best forward estimates.\nThe strong moat originating from their sheer user base, and sizeable TAMs in E-commerce, VR/AR, digital assets (DIEM), cumulatively make for a compelling growth story.\nAlthough the company is highly controversial and rightfully so, this article focuses more on the quantitative analysis and less on the morals and ethics behind this investment. That, we shall leave to you.\n\nnemke/E+ via Getty Images\nInvestment Thesis\nFacebook (FB) has had a volatile trading period the past few years with a general uptrend, delivering shareholders nice returns whilst subjecting them to a few major dips which presented investors an opportunity for a steal. Despite the controversy and headline risks every now and then, the company has been able to battle through them and emerge ever so stronger. The company’s financials have been holding up and shows no sign of stoppage anytime soon. In a time as such, with significant uncertainty in the macro environment and inflation fears creeping up, we believe that shifting some of your assets to high cashflow generating companies is a wise strategy that will pay off. Growth and value are 2 different things, and there still exists growth companies that are undervalued and can still generate substantial cashflow, and we believe Facebook is one of them. The company also remains to be one of the more attractive blue-chip stocks compared to the others in the FAANG. We employ a 3–5-year outlook and have been bullish since USD$200/share. Let’s Begin!\nWhat is Facebook\nKnown to all, Facebook is a social media giant with a family of products including the likes of Facebook, Instagram,WhatsApp, Messenger, and now Oculus. The firm essentially has a stronghold in the social media industry and has an impressive DAP of2.72 BN as of Q1’21and MAP of 3.45 BN.\n(Source:FB Q1’21 Presentation)\nThe world has7.874 BNpeople as of the time of this writing and that would mean that 43.8% of all the people in the world use some form of product from Facebook’s portfolio in the past 30 days. On a daily basis, 34.5% of the people in the world use it. If that isn’t a sticky service, nothing really is. If we were to focus on the usage of the Facebook app solely, 23.8% of the world logs into the app daily based on DAUs.\nThe firm was founded in 2004 and generates the majority of their revenue from advertisements. If you have watched the social dilemma on Netflix, you would realize that Facebook’s real customer isn’t everyday users. Instead, users are the product, and they are being sold to advertisers. The company has created such an engaging and sticky service that users are more than happy to be using their apps, despite knowing that their data is being sold from one company to another. As appalling as it is, they’re indifferent to it all and still find the value in using the company’s products on a daily basis – keeping in touch with distant relatives, chatting with friends, staying up to date with the latest fashion trends and news… (According to the Pew Research Center, more than a 1/3 of US adults say they get their news regularly from Facebook)\n(Source:Pew Research Center)\nTo Facebook, this is equally as good as the more users, the wider the ‘product’ base that they have to offer their customers - advertisers. Advertisers are also indifferent to how Facebook attains its data, so long as Facebook’s targeting metrics and trackers are working well, the more likely it is that they are able to generate conversions. The more conversions, the more sales for them, the more ads they continue to pay for, the more revenue Facebook generates. Win-Win-Win, their apps are the bait, and the product (users), customers (advertisers), and supplier (Facebook), all walk away winners. It’s a remarkable business model that has stood the test of time and no matter the amount of controversy around the business, founders, and its practices, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and for one simple reason: Users likely can’t do without Facebook’s products whether they are willing to admit it or not.\nWhen we look back in the past to reflect on how the #StopHateForProfit Campaign turned out for the company, it is apparent that the impact it had on the top and bottom line were both minimal. The boycott was one that arose due to Facebook’s bad hate speech regulations and policing, and because of the laissez-faire attitude toward posts from then President, Donald Trump. More than 1000 companies publicly committed to boycotting the social media giant in June/July (coinciding with end Q2 and start Q3) and many of the top 100 advertisers based on ad spend such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Coca-Cola, all revised their budgets downwards.\nDespite this, Facebook beat on Q2 earnings and saw an increase of 10.7% YOY. In its forward guidance, the company also announced that for July, they were anticipating a slowdown in YoY growth of 17% but was still due to see a 10% increase. They alsoanticipatedthe slowdown in growth to last through till October. However, the company did not attribute this slowdown to the boycott specifically but to 3 other major headwinds. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that even for Q3’20, the firm saw an impressive 21.6% rise in its top line, with the bottom line still registering a 12.2% improvement in NPM for Q2’20 YoY and a 200 bps NPM improvement in Q3.\nThe results are clear and indicative of a few things. The boycott by the largest companies did little to Facebook’s financial story as they still managed to register growth and did not see significant pullbacks that were material. This can be tied to the fact that most of Facebook’s advertisers are SMBs. Although certain few SMBs did join the boycott, most didn’t, and the firm still had their impressive 9 million + customer base to rely on. If anything, this also suggests that despite what any SMB stands for and whether they agree with a social cause or not, it is hard for them to find alternatives that they can shift to on a similar pricing scale. Big brands can easily pivot to other advertisements such as TV and radio commercials but SMBs simply can’t because of smaller budgets. Lastly, it is now clear that the campaign affected Facebook’s reputation more so than it did its cashflow.\nRisks\nOther risks that the company may face would be future antitrust lawsuits. As it is, the company is already facing allegations of being a monopoly based on their aggressive acquisitive history having acquired more than90 other companiessince inception. They were alsofined US$5 BNby the FTC in 2019 and were required to adopt their policies and employ new protections for the users and their data that has been shared.\n(Source: TIKR.com)\nThough representative of a historic penalty and the largest ever imposed on a company for violating user’s privacy rights, the US$5BN was a drop in the bucket for the giant that went on to generate US$70+ BN dollars for the year.\nThe current issues that they have with Apple’s new iOS changes and the IDFA implications are also likely not going to have a substantial impact on the firm. The Identifier for Advertisers [IDFA] is a random device identifier assigned by Apple to a user's device. Advertisers use this to track data so they can deliver customized advertising on mobile. With the new iOS changes, Apple essentially programmed it such that each app that wants to use these identifiers will have to ask users to opt in for tracking when the app is first launched. If users opt out, the app can’t track certain data and Facebook will have a smaller database of points to rely upon. As consumer preferences change, so will Facebook’s targeting that relies on IDFAs get worse and less effective due to outdated data points.\nAccording to aCNBC article:\n\n Most critically at stake for Facebook is what’s known as view-through conversions. This metric is used by ad-tech companies to measure how many users saw an ad, did not immediately click on it, but later made a purchase related to that ad.”\n\nWhen the conversion is made later on, the data IDFA for that particular user is then shared by the retailer to Facebook which is then used by the company to see if it matches the IDFA of the user who saw the ad. If they pair, it indicates that the ad was useful in generating a conversion. This data performance is then relayed to advertisers so that they can tweak their ad strategies accordingly. Withas much as 96% of usersanticipated to opt out of tracking on all apps, this would mean that mobile ads on 3rdparty apps may no longer be as useful if Facebook cannot really judge its effectiveness anymore. The more ineffective the ads become, the less conversions for retailers, and the more they pivot to other advertising platforms, which will impact the revenues for the firm.\nHowever, Facebook has disclosed that this will particularly only affect one form of advertisement which relies heavily on the IDFA, known as Audience Networks. Fortunately, the audience network segment only represents less than 10% of the firm’s total revenues. With the impact estimating to cost a drop in50% of all ads deliveredand hence sales from this segment, this would atbest represent a 5% drop in their total revenues. With that said, we do not anticipate that this will be present significant impact moving forward and the firm can easily recoup the 5% loss at worse by focusing on increasing ARPUs and user engagement to save their core business.\nThough Facebook started by disclosing that they anticipated the impact on their revenues to be large at first, this no longer seems to be the case. If anything, history has shown us that Mark is not one to back down and if he doesn’t get his way, he damn well will find another way to minimise loss and increase revenue generation in other segments to make up for it. If you aren’t too involved in the technicalities, we think it’s safe to bet on the jockey in this case. Besides, AR / VR growth,WhatsApp monetization, Reels monetization, further user growth in less developed countries away from the legacy North America and Europe region can very well pick up the lost (US$5BN) in sales.\nMoat\nAs mentioned above, the DAUs and MAUs for Facebook are very impressive with a large portion of the world using at least 1 of their products. The moat for the business relies on the wide user base that Facebook has meticulously built over the course of 17 years. With any new product that they have, the firm can easily roll it out to their database of users and expect demand to pick up in a matter of weeks, maybe even days. That is the power of the network of Facebook that really can’t be valued.\n(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)\nDespite the controversy, endless allegations, and negative headlines one after the other, the numbers don’t lie. DAUs have been increasing every single quarter, with the fastest growth observed in Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world. US & Canada growth has slowed as it nears saturation levels, and this is perfectly normal and to be expected. The way we anticipate Facebook to grow their core cash cow business moving forward is clean. 1) Focus on growing ARPUs in their saturated legacy areas (US & Canada and Europe) as well as 2) Increase User Growth by Geography in their growth areas (Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the World). Unsurprisingly, Facebook has been focused on doing just that.\n(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)\nWhen we look to the infamous metric for judging social media companies and their performance – ARPUs, we can see that in the legacy areas, ARPUs have been increasing at a faster pace than compared to growth areas. This falls in line with point number 1 as mentioned above. The legacy areas have already reached saturation levels and user growth is unable to grow at astounding rates anymore. However, since this represent areas that are more developed and generally have higher disposable incomes on the average, focusing on increasing ARPUs and monetizing advertisers is the right strategy and a very feasible one. Though the growth areas are also seeing ARPUs grow YoY as they should, they are not at the same pace as in the US & Canada and Europe. When we look to revenue generated by geography below, this confirms the thesis that revenue is growing faster than user base in those areas, and since ARPU equal to (Total Revenue from that Geography / Number of Users in that area), so long revenue is growing at a faster pace than the user base, they should increase meaningfully.\n(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)\nWhen we look to the slide below, it is also apparent that user numbers are growing much faster in Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world, away from the legacy areas. Across 2 years, MAUs which is the broadest business performance metric employed by Facebook, grew 22.4% and 25.4% in the growth areas while they only grew a mere 6.6% in US & Canada and 10.2% in Europe.\n(Source: FB Q1’21 Presentation)\nIf Facebook can continue to grow their user engagement numbers in the growth areas whilst maximizing ARPUs in legacy areas, the company can easily ensure that the core advertising model will remain the cash cow of the business, funding growth for their other product developments.\nGrowth Tactics\nWhen we look to potential growth Facebook has, the company isn’t short of any. Facebook has moved to monetizeWhatsApp, where they plan to generate fees from payments made within the app itself as well as through in-app status advertisements. The company is essentially trying to integrate the growth and TAM of the E-commerce market more seamlessly into their family of products including the likes ofWhatsApp. ThroughFacebook Pay, users can now engage in peer-to-peer payments withinWhatsApp itself at no cost. However, when businesses receive a fee from customers through the app itself, they will then have to pay a small ‘processing fee’ to Facebook and this is where it profits. This is the same method that is being employed by Shopify and all the other payment processing channels just that it is now being done locally inWhatsApp itself.WhatsApp payments has launched in Brazil, the 2nd largest market by users and the fee stands at 3.99%.\n(Source:Facebook Newsroom)\nThe firm has also been trying to grow their presence in the E-commerce market and reduce the friction customers experience when clicking through ads on its platforms. Both Instagram checkout and Facebook shops are aimed at doing just that. Their shops solutions are also expanding toWhatsApp, and the marketplace as observed above. The company sees a major shift to online shopping even after the grand reopening of the economies. As part of its effort over the years, they now have 1.2M active shops across their platforms and more than 300M monthly shop visitors. Thelatest releasestates that:\n\n Soon, we’ll give businesses in select countries the option to showcase their Shop inWhatsApp. In the US, we’ll enable them to bring Shops products into Marketplace, helping them reach the more than 1 billion people globally who visit each month.\n\n(Source:Facebook Newsroom)\nWhat’s even more fascinating is the fact that Facebook now plans to integrate new technologies such as AR Dynamic Ads to power the future of shopping. New visual discovery tools on their platforms like Instagram will help customers find new products that they resonate with faster than ever before and help them to visualize their products with AR experiences that they have been working on for a long time now.\nTheir continued expansion in the AR/VR market along with the rollout of DIEM, their native digital currency functioning as a stablecoin that was once under the “Libra Project” also presents good growth opportunity in the near future. Facebook is also looking to introducepodcasts and live audio streamsas part of the beginning of their audio journey. In short, Facebook still has a lot of room to grow moving forward apart from looking to squeeze out more cash from their legacy advertising business model. However, as always, product development is one thing, but the financials do need to shape up as well and with Facebook it does.\nFinancials\nOf the FAANG stock group, Facebook enjoys one of the highest margins. The company saw 80.55% in GM in Q1’21 and even in the past, it has enjoyed such high margins, trading between 80.5% to as high as 86.6% in FY17. The chart below also clearly indicates that the remarkable margins trickle down to the bottom line and aren’t wiped out due to operating expenses, registering a NPM of 35.7%.\nData by YCharts\nFB also routinely spends a large portion of their revenues on R&D, reinvesting into the business YoY to further improve their products and innovate on new ones. In 2020 the R&D expense represented 21.5% of total sales.\n(Source: TIKR.com)\nA large chunk of the firms’ revenues is also retained on the balance sheet which is then used over the years to funnel money to continue their acquisitive culture. Despite this, the strong cashflow that the firm enjoys allows it to stay at the top of their industry in terms of innovation whilst ensuring that their treasure trove of cash is growing should there be a need to deploy it. When we look to liquid cash that the firm holds (Cash & Equivalents, and STI), Facebook has grown it at a tremendous CAGR of 26.2%. Net Debt has also just been becoming less of a concern over the years. To date, even after the pandemic, Facebook has no debt.\n(Source: TIKR.com)\nGiven the data above, it is evident that the firm has one of the most pristine balance sheets in the industry and in the whole stock market. The US$62 BN that they hold as cash presents itself as a massive buffer to cushion the impact of whatever comes their way, be it another acquisitive opportunity, or yet another fine. Either way, the company can weather any financial storm and near balance sheet issues aren’t a problem. Shareholders aren’t too pleased with the cash pile just sitting there and would instead rather the firm start paying a dividend or pick up the pace in share buybacks to maximize investor returns. Facebook has never paid a dividend in its entirety and although they may consider that moving forward, we anticipate that it is not a move that they will commit to. In any case, we ourselves hope that they commit to more share buybacks instead of moving to issue a dividend.\n(Source:Q1 10-K Filing SEC)\nIn their 10-K filing, the company expanded their SRP program to include an additional US$25 BN which will be added atop the US$8.6 BN remaining from a 2017 authorization. That amounts to a current authorized SRP valued at around US$33.6 BN and we anticipate that this may further increase substantially moving forward. Despite outstanding shares reducing overtime, a large part is offset by additional equity issued as part of SBC to employees. It is disappointing that the firm isn’t making more of a definitive move to put that cash pile to use but this is nonetheless not a major red flag.\nValuations\nBeing a blue-chip company with strong FCF, we would normally value the social media giant with a DCF model. Today, however, we will be looking at EV/Sales and P/E Ratios to try and justify its future valuation, looking 3 years out as always to end 2023.\n(Source:Seeking Alpha)\nLooking 3 years out to end 23, Facebook is projected to grow revenues at an average of 23.4%, with growth in the 30s for this fiscal year. That would mean that Facebook is anticipated to grow revenues to US$160.8 BN by end 2023, up 87% from what they delivered in FY20 in 3 years.\n(Source: TIKR.com)\nSince 2018, the firm has traded at an average EV/Sales of 8.85, and last exchanged hands at a multiple of 9.76. Although the firm is trading at a multiple above its mean and higher than any of the other stocks as part of the FAANG group, Facebook does have higher estimates than all the other companies in the near future as observed below. The data does not reflect estimates for 2023.\n(Source: TIKR.com)\nMoreover, when we look further into the past all the way back to 2013, the company has historically traded at an average of 12.82 and even registered a high close to 22 in 2014. However, since we want to be conservative, but believe that the market has yet to really price Facebook for what it’s worth given all the headline risks in the media that have induced immediate selloffs without any fundamental reason, we will employ a multiple of 9.\n(Source: TIKR.com)\nAt an EV/Sales multiple of 9, that would put Facebook at a US$1.447 TRN dollar valuation by the end of 2023 and a share price of US$539, an upside of 58%.\n(Source:Seeking Alpha)\nWhen we look to revenue surprise and analyst estimate beat / miss trends, Facebook has quite the historical track record of surpassing estimates, having done so 10/12 times in the past 3 years. The average upside surprise stands at 3.59%. Assuming Facebook will continue to deliver the same upside surprise moving forward, a 3.59% beat to the top line estimate of 2023 would warrant revenues of US$166.57 BN. At the same EV/Sales ratio of 9, that would render a higher valuation of US$558.77 USD. Given that Facebook is very close to crossing the US$1 TRN dollar valuation mark, we anticipate this to be a very realistic price target.\nNow shifting on to another valuation method by P/E multiples, the valuation also paints a similar picture.\n(Source:Seeking Alpha)\nTurning to earnings estimates, the company is also projected to do high-teens digit growth for 2022 and 2023 and a close to 30% growth in the bottom line for this fiscal year.\nData by YCharts\nDespite trading at the highest EV / Sales ratio of the FAANG stocks, Facebook is trading at the lowest TTM normalized PE Ratio amongst its peers, with the inclusion of Microsoft (FANGMA). This is likely due to the market failing to internalize and appreciate the company’s high NPM and profitability. Currently trading at a P/E ratio of 29.14, this is also below its historical means of as high as 60+ in 2016.\nData by YCharts\nHowever, given that earnings have improved dramatically since and likely won’t be revisiting those levels as seen from the forward estimates, we will stick with what we believe to be a fair multiple for the stickiest company in the world, 30. At a P/E ratio of 30, that would put the end 2023 share price somewhere near levels of US$531.\n(Source:Seeking Alpha)\nHowever, because of a surprisingly good earnings-beat track record once again, this has to be factored in moving forward. Of the last 3 years, Facebook has beat earnings 11/12 times. The average beat comes in at 15.72%. If we were to stick to a similar but more conservative beat of say 7%, that would put 2023 normalized earnings at 18.93. The exact same P/E ratio would now warrant a realistic share price of US$567.8, an upside of 66.3%.\nWith all 4 estimates using different methods and assumptions with different levels of conservatism employed delivering a potential share price anywhere between US$531 and US$568, it would be fair to conclude that this is a realistic price target for the cashflow king 3 years out into the future. At the low end of estimates of US$531, this is still indicative of a 55% upside.\nInvestor Takeaways\nTo conclude, we believe Facebook has a very strong future ahead and the projected numbers for both the Topline and Bottom line are indicative of potential upside. We place significant emphasis on forward estimates as markets are future discounting mechanisms that react accordingly. The company enjoys unbelievably high margins, has a pristine balance sheet with absolutely no debt, and is anticipated to keep raking in high revenues with strong cashflow numbers.\nWith so many growth opportunities such as the monetization ofWhatsApp, AR/VR, shops, marketplace growth, DIEM, and the continued growth in its legacy advertisement business both in terms of MAP and ARPUs, Facebook is here to stay and is nowhere near exhausting its full potential. The sizeable TAMs in each of the different business segments combined with other opportunities such as Facebook Reels which we did not cover, and the fact that it has yet to have been monetized, all point to a bright future.\nThat being said, it is a given that the company will face many other bumps along moving forward. Facebook will continue to be subjected to what we call ‘headline risks’ whereby the stock will be overly sold off to the downside based upon nothing fundamental but one-sided exaggerated narratives. This we believe presents the best time to pick up shares and accumulate for the long run. Facebook has been perceived to have engaged in a lot of dubious unethical behaviour surrounding user data but like we said, that is separate from the investment opportunity the company presents and we will leave that to you to decide. Granted that there are many reasons surrounding the company's beat-down reputation, the return on invested capital is a different story and the main one to be focused on when considering if a company is a good investment or not.\nEnd day, when it comes to blue-chip stocks that have a firm hold in the industry, good sticky products, and solid financials, it is hard for the stock not to trend up overtime so long as estimates paint a bright picture and most importantly, the markets continue to value them in the same rational way. This has not always been the case and can be easily seen from Microsoft’s outperformance hiatus when the Dot Com bubble crashed, and the stock took 17 years to put in a new high. Still, we believe blue chip stocks are a good bet as of now and should be a part of everyone’s portfolio, and Facebook presents the best buy of the FAANG from our perspective. Till next time!","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":202,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":181807528,"gmtCreate":1623382578564,"gmtModify":1704202155912,"author":{"id":"3584357430867033","authorId":"3584357430867033","name":"HODLFTW","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","crmLevel":3,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3584357430867033","idStr":"3584357430867033"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"TLDR...&nbsp;","listText":"TLDR...&nbsp;","text":"TLDR...","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":312,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/181807528","repostId":"1127823989","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"1127823989","pubTimestamp":1623253090,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1127823989?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2021-06-09 23:38","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Amazon: A No-Brainer For The Next 10 Years","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1127823989","media":"seekingalpha","summary":"The recent approval of Amazon Pharmacy provides a huge TAM.Amazonis one of the best-known companies in the world, it seems difficult to discover something new in it but the reality is that there is a lot to discover. After performing this in-depth analysis of Amazon, I have realized that most segments are in their early stages. The current valuation is very attractive considering that they are just scratching the surface of the potential of these divisions.Amazon Healthcare has a huge TAM throug","content":"<p><b>Summary</b></p>\n<ul>\n <li>Amazon maintains high advertising potential.</li>\n <li>The recent approval of Amazon Pharmacy provides a huge TAM.</li>\n <li>The company has an interesting future operating leverage due to high capex deployed in logistics.</li>\n</ul>\n<p><b>Investment Thesis</b></p>\n<p>Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN)is one of the best-known companies in the world, it seems difficult to discover something new in it but the reality is that there is a lot to discover. After performing this in-depth analysis of Amazon, I have realized that most segments are in their early stages. The current valuation is very attractive considering that they are just scratching the surface of the potential of these divisions.</p>\n<p>Amazon Healthcare has a huge TAM through Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Care (telemedicine). Both divisions are newly approved, so as of today, they contribute virtually nothing to Amazon's bottom line.</p>\n<p>The retail part has a long way to go, with a lot of room for growth with its omnichannel for supermarkets, increases in ARPU, FBA.</p>\n<p>On the other hand, digital advertising is eating the world, and Amazon has recently been getting into it (since 2015). Part of Amazon's advertising five years ago was generating hardly any profit, now it is doubling revenues every two years and this has just begun. Amazon is the most powerful product marketplace globally, so it makes perfect sense that the wild growth in advertising continues to grow at high rates.</p>\n<p>We still have the optionality in gaming, the growth in prime ARPUs, the Audio and Video division, in short, numerous segments that have not yet started to contribute sales and Amazon is currently trading at about 35x normalized FCF, expensive? In our opinion considerably cheaper than the multiples at which the market is trading.</p>\n<p><b>Product</b></p>\n<p>Amazon is a company that has always had a long-term focus. This means that since its inception, it has renounced short-term profitability to become one of the most important companies in the world in the long term. There is no doubt that it has achieved this goal and we are right at the moment where Amazon is beginning to reap what has been sown for so many years.</p>\n<p>In its early days, Amazon focused on the user experience when shopping online. Amazon offered a simple, accessible and universal way to buy products to guarantee the highest number of reviews and arrive in record time. In addition, acquiring a product on Amazon carries the guarantee of delivery of the same; this means that if you have any kind of problem with the reception of the product, Amazon solves it in record time.</p>\n<p>This first phase has been very successful and has been the foundation of Amazon 2.0, which has been integrating more and more services and improving its original product: e-commerce. This image summarizes very well the evolution of Amazon from a Prime 1.0 to a Prime with a much higher added value.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/d99378da746d0c3e0141d21e45729e0d\" tg-width=\"533\" tg-height=\"357\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Thanks to this user experience created by Amazon, it has been one of the main contributors (or rather the main contributor) to the explosive evolution of e-commerce, making its penetration increasingly higher and its growth very high.</p>\n<p>According toStatistadata, e-commerce penetration worldwide is 50.8% in 2021 and is expected to reach 63.1% in 2025. Average spending per person exceeds $700 per year. Between 2020 and 2025, e-commerce revenues are expected to grow by 50%, so far from being a mature market, it is still growing strongly.</p>\n<p><b>Amazon Prime</b></p>\n<p>We all know what this service entails, so I am not going to explain it at length. More and more new services are being integrated into Amazon Prime, making it one of the must-have subscriptions for users.</p>\n<p>A chronological summary of Amazon's evolution in the US (its most mature market) is essential to understand the evolution of prices and value-added over time.</p>\n<p>Amazonlaunches Prime subscription in the US in 2005for $79 per year. In 2006, Amazon moved forward and launched Fulfilled by Amazon. This service allows sellers to have a store on Amazon and ship their products for a fee. These products then become eligible for Amazon Prime, increasing the assortment and selection available to customers.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/26ee6071f10355c56905089335e248a9\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"264\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Starting in 2011, Amazon included Prime Video in subscriptions, which meant 5,000 movies and series for every subscriber.</p>\n<p>2014 was a great year for Prime, not only because there were many new services added, but also because there was the first price increase, Amazon raises from $79 to $99 the subscription in the U.S. This same year Amazon Prime Pantry is launched, offering customers the ability to buy essential supermarket products (toilet paper, drinks, creams) for a meager fee and regularly. Also in 2014, Amazon Music was launched with the Prime subscription, giving access to a catalog of 60M songs, on a par with the best streaming services. Amazon photos are also launched, a service that offers high-resolution photo storage with Amazon's own subscription. Finally, Amazon launches; Amazon Now, a supermarket service in which you receive your products in 2 hours (or one in certain areas) with free shipping cost from $ 50.</p>\n<p>In 2015 Amazon Prime Day was created to celebrate the 20th anniversary, in which 24 hours offers to appear to be the day of Amazon's biggest sale since its launch.</p>\n<p>In 2016, same-day delivery to 27 metropolitan areas was introduced. Prime also joins Prime, Prime Reading, which offered more than 1,000 books and magazines free of charge.</p>\n<p>In 2017, an agreement was formed with Chase to create a credit card that offers Prime subscribers at no added cost a 5% cash back at Amazon or Whole Foods for purchases made. Prime Wardrobe is also launched in 2017, a service that allows you to try on clothes, jewelry or similar in a period of 7 days before having to pay. That same year Amazon Key is launched, a smart lock that allows opening the home from the Smartphone to trusted people (seeing through an integrated camera), open the door from your own Smartphone or with a personal code. In addition to this, it allows Prime members to receive Amazon packages in their garage, house, without needing a key, simply through the APP.</p>\n<p>In 2017, the acquisition of Whole Foods was made, which is integrated into Amazon with discounts, free shipping or cashback when paying by card.</p>\n<p>In 2018 comes a second price increase from $99 to the current $119, an increase of $40 since its launch in 2005.</p>\n<p>In 2019, Amazon Fresh launched Prime subscribers, offering free in select cities fresh grocery delivery service.</p>\n<p>Finally, in 2020 Amazon Prime Gaming is launched, a service built into the Prime subscription that provides free games, exclusive gaming content and a free Twitch subscription.</p>\n<p>The evolution of Prime has been impressive, incorporating new services year after year to make Amazon's subscription indispensable in our lives. Seeing the evolution in subscribers, it seems evident that it has achieved its purpose.</p>\n<p>Prime's evolution has taken us to200M subscribers in 2020globally of which 153M are from the US.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/98abbd226ea68e7b6dd19537677a9888\" tg-width=\"588\" tg-height=\"374\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: Emarketer, Statista</p>\n<p>Given the penetration, Prime's growth has slowed down in recent years, although users are becoming more and more accustomed to the service and it is becoming one of the essential subscriptions. This in our opinion, will lead to pricing power, something we have already seen in the United States, where the price for the subscription is substantially higher than the international subscription.</p>\n<p>Below is a comparison of subscription costs in different countries:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/250693f17a1239d59514520d8656fecb\" tg-width=\"343\" tg-height=\"373\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Prices have risen compared to2018(these are as of year-end 2020). It is expected that prices will continue to rise gradually to generate higher earnings per user (ARPU).</p>\n<p>The first thing we notice is that the disparity between countries is high. In my opinion, where there is more room for prices to converge is in Europe, as Prime becomes more mature and incorporates higher quality content (as it has done in the US). This table shows that there is still a long way to go in terms of ARPU. Even in the US the price of an Amazon Prime subscription, taking into account everything included (music, video, access to Pharmacy, free shipping, storage), is well below other comparable subscriptions.</p>\n<p>Penetration in the United States is at its highest, 77% of people who buy on Amazon are Prime users. In 2020 this percentage was 67% so we have substantial growth; in fact it is one of the highest growth rates in the last decade.</p>\n<p>The Prime user is more profitable since he/she tends to spend 2-3 times more per month than a non-Prime user. In e-commerce, Amazon is the clear dominator with amarket sharein the United States of more than 50%. Being the clear dominator in a market thatwill grow at double digitsfor the next 5 years (probably also for the next 10 years) is undoubtedly very interesting. Another important point is that retail is a huge market where Amazon is just scratching the surface but has certainly positioned itself to capture more and more market share as the years go by. Amazon has only9% ofUS retail sales, while Walmart has 9.5%. To give you a sense of Amazon's traction, in 2019 it only had 6.8%. Although it is clear that COVID has helped it gain traction, over the years it has always been gaining more market share. Amazon knows this and is substantially increasing fulfillment CAPEX.</p>\n<p>The maturity of the Prime subscriber is also something important. As the years go by the Prime subscriber tends to consume more, so we could say that even a Prime subscriber has a rump-up period as we can see in this graph:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5636145e9a1d04a4f1d4f1643c0550a1\" tg-width=\"436\" tg-height=\"252\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">In certain markets such as India, where Amazon has focused a lot of attention and investment, Prime membership growth has been exceptional. According to the head of Prime in the country, Prime membership has doubled between 4Q17 and 2Q19. While some of that growth may have been driven by Amazon's material investment in local digital content and Prime rate incentives, we believe many of these members will become more engaged retail customers as their financial situation improves over time.</p>\n<p>There are doubts about whether the momentum resulting from COVID in e-commerce will slow down with the reopening of e-commerce. Data from the first quarter of 2021 (with a reasonable reopening) shows that far from slowing down, growth has even accelerated above pre-COVID levels. This makes sense as certain users are reluctant to shop online and have been relatively forced during the quarantine. Having made purchases online has allowed them to lose that fear and become e-commerce users that would have taken longer to become so had it not been for COVID.</p>\n<p>Currently, 66% of GMVs (Gross Merchandise Value or total amount transacted in resales without discounts) come from the United States, the most mature market. In the future, the projection is that the mix of GMVs between US and Non-US will converge to 50% since it is in the rest of the markets where growth is currently highest.</p>\n<p>Market penetration is gradual and to get an idea of how it is evolving; we must look at the most mature market: the United States.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fa586d6b9e788420999aa48c50811040\" tg-width=\"553\" tg-height=\"351\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Currently, 67% of U.S. households with internet have a Prime subscription.</p>\n<p><b>Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)</b></p>\n<p>More than half of the units purchased on Amazon's global marketplaces are sold by third-party merchants: sellers large and small who benefit from having access to Amazon's millions of customers. Your Seller Care business enables you to offer a wide selection of products by engaging these sellers and helping them manage their business on the platform.</p>\n<p>Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a program that allows sellers to ship their inventory to Amazon's distribution centers, where they create, pack and ship orders for them, as well as handle customer service and returns for them. Their products become part of the Prime program, so they reach an even larger audience, and the seller spends fewer resources on inventory management and shipping.</p>\n<p>FBA started in 2005 with just a handful of vendors. Teams of business and technical professionals build all the systems that enable it, including tools that provide real-time data and reports and allow companies to manage their inventories remotely and from any device.</p>\n<p>The fulfillment part benefits from operational leverage, managing to contain unit costs and generating a higher and higher free cash flow. To understand the service in greater depth, we can look at Amazon's FBA service fees to third parties, which occupy almost 50% of the GMVs.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1165bbedf3c99919df3b86f97386eb31\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"316\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Amazon has been investing in its fulfillment network for many years, reinforcing its increasingly evident MOAT regarding logistics capacity and customer experience. So high has been the deployment of Capex that today it even rivals companies whose core business is precisely that:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/b2b35107ea150c8462f41cf6ff2f1975\" tg-width=\"431\" tg-height=\"213\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: Annual report, FactSet estimates</p>\n<p>With the scale that Amazon has acquired, it would not be unreasonable to become a more efficient logistics platform than even pure competitors.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/d093110e0653de7cd4b486dbcf1543f4\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"253\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">The graph shows how the simplest route an order can take is directly from the seller to the buyer through a third-party service, where Amazon never actually touches the product, only puts the Marketplace.</p>\n<p>For orders that do go through Amazon's network, the company groups inventory into three different categories:</p>\n<ol>\n <li>Small classifiable: consumer items that make up the majority of the business. These are everyday items such as books, video games, and small-weight items.</li>\n <li>Large sortable: Items with a higher weight may require more manual systems due to their size.</li>\n <li>Large unsortable: Items that due to their size or weight, are handled with less automation, often in different locations and require more specialization for their preparation, such as specific packaging. Most of these shipments are delivered by third parties, mostly XPO.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Small and large collection and packaging facilities are usually located in the same building but separate divisions.</p>\n<p>A key defining characteristic of small and large sortable items is that they can fit into a box placed on a conveyor belt for automatic sorting.</p>\n<p>Intuitively, small sortable items are also where the company has implemented the most automation, including robotic picking functionality.</p>\n<p>2013 was a turning point for FBA. We are talking about the 1,050 fulfillment network points today; only 58 were open before 2014, or 5%. Before 2014 there were no airports; there was hardly any infrastructure compared to today. 2020 is once again a turning point; 45% of fulfillment centers have been or will be built after 2020.</p>\n<p>This has undoubtedly been reflected in the 2020 CAPEX, which has risen considerably compared to previous years, from 5% to 9%. Excluding the increase in 2020 CAPEX, annualized growth since 2013 is 37%, above sales growth. Not all of this growth is due to fulfillment. Still, reading the letters from management, it is clear that a large part of this growth comes from this division, saying that the costs associated with \"last mile delivery\" had increased substantially.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ab81f81d8d08e98fa4819e90b6a553e1\" tg-width=\"581\" tg-height=\"420\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">This Capex is reflected in the evolution of the square meters of fulfillment:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5eb5e8f0ce6c11a4e1a96e2ab8002586\" tg-width=\"574\" tg-height=\"322\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Growth in line with all of the above.</p>\n<p>Amazon is also increasing its aircraft fleet, which started in 2016 following the agreement with ATSG and Atlas Air to lease 40 aircraft (20+20). Currently, the fleet of aircraft under lease is 82 plus 11 owned aircraft, a total of 93, so it has more than doubled the fleet in less than 5 years. These movements make clear Amazon's intentions to boost the air service. If it continues simultaneously, we would have about 200 aircraft in 2016 between leasing and ownership.</p>\n<p>In the following image, we can see Amazon's air gateway network, with its usual spans. The network represents a key piece of the company's proprietary distribution network that has not been replicated by any other retailer and is a key function that allows Amazon to operate without the networks of third-party carriers.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9eeec3e1927a51a580d7007e6caba3c2\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"535\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: Chaddick Institute</p>\n<p>In Europe, it also has a network in the main capitals: Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Rome, Cologne and Leipzig.</p>\n<p>The current gap in the fleet is significant concerning UPS and FedEx, but Capex is deploying Amazon would not be surprised to have a similar fleet by 2030.</p>\n<p>And all this for what? Considering how much Amazon is spending on logistics, it's clear it has a purpose. FBA sales went from $1b in 2011 to $40b in 2020, a significant jump. Rumors indicate that Amazon would like to start competing with UPS and FedEx in offering their services not only for its Marketplace but also for third parties. This may be indicative of the program launched in 2017 \"Seller Flex) which is a variant of the FBA program but in-house. This means that you can leverage Amazon's logistics tools without having to deposit inventory in Amazon's fulfillment centers. This is already a very similar service to that provided by pure shipping players.</p>\n<p>Following the launch of FBA Onsite, Amazon began internal testing of Amazon Shipping, a third-party shipping service that complemented FBA onsite. Early on reports suggested that Amazon would be able to undercut third-party carriers by leveraging the capacity it already used for its own deliveries and eliminating added costs. After more than two years, Amazon Shipping remains an internal trial put on hold by the arrival of COVID, as Amazon itself needed all of its logistics capacity for internal use.</p>\n<p>Is there really an opportunity here? Let's look at the sales and operating profit of the main players: UPS and FedEx.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/44a8276c53a9261ed6a84a8607ce87e9\" tg-width=\"356\" tg-height=\"113\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Between them they generate 40% of Amazon's sales and 53% of operating profit. Obviously, Amazon will not capture all the business from both, but it gives us an idea that it is a large market that can provide incremental sales for Amazon.</p>\n<p>Considering all the opportunities on the table: Pharmacy, Grocery, Gaming, Advertising) Amazon Shipping will likely be delayed for a while, not one of the most immediate priorities. The deployed Capex itself serves for internal use with much more intense value chain control.</p>\n<p>We can really see the benefits of that CAPEX for fulfillment in the gross margin. The cost of sales is associated with Amazon's shipping costs, both in-house and through third parties. As in-house shipping has been gaining scale through CAPEX deployment, the gross margin has been increasing, and this is entirely normal given that this segment is pure volume. This means that a company that does not move Amazon's volume will not be compensated for the Capex deployed by Amazon. Still, on the other hand, a company like Amazon that increases the number of shipments in double digits year after year shows that the higher the volume, the higher the cost savings per shipment that the CAPEX deployed will compensate. This is a key point, as Amazon has a greater weight in own shipping and less in third parties, it will acquire a higher gross margin because the cost of own shipping is significantly lower than using a third party such as UPS or FedEx.</p>\n<p><b>AWS</b></p>\n<p>We believe that AWS will continue to be the dominant player in IaaS/PaaS as it captures most of the future growth in the industry due to its huge customer base.</p>\n<p>There should be plenty of growth opportunities for all three vendors. Gartner's forecast for IaaS and PaaS implies a 25% revenue CAGR between 2020 and 2023 and a market of nearly $200 billion by 2023.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c931481c0a035bcced96f4f401235488\" tg-width=\"630\" tg-height=\"423\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">As for margins, they have danced between 20-30% despite aggressive pricing plans with a total of 20 discounts between 2018 and 2020 and so far 1 in 2021. The drop in margins in 2019 was due to an increase in investments for sales and marketing issues, which was only a short-term issue.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/13a64e7975829481aa0bedba683c33fa\" tg-width=\"586\" tg-height=\"353\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Amazon is the clear dominator in the cloud market and although it has lost market share in recent years, this has not prevented it from growing at very high rates. What's interesting? The expectation is that thecloud marketwill grow from 2020 to 2025 at a compound rate of 17.5%. Considering that it is currently the company's division with the best margins, this is great news for Amazon's future.</p>\n<p>Amazon'sbacklogis accelerating its growth; we talk about the last year has grown more than 50% YoY while AWS sales growth is more in line with 30%. The backlog is contracts with an average maturity period of 3 years that end up materializing in sales, so seeing the rate at which it is growing is certainly very interesting.</p>\n<p>Backlog contracts are usually with large companies to whom they make offers with consequent price cuts. AWS is being aggressive but can afford to be given the margins it operates on.</p>\n<p>The backlog currently exceeds $50b, which should materialize over an average period of 3 years. This will be AWS sales but does not mean that these are the only sales that will materialize as there will continue to be growth in shorter-term contracts as at present.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/24e0033a5094a6f45b6cf02363014fcd\" tg-width=\"575\" tg-height=\"347\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: Annual Report &amp; Morgan Stanley Estimates</p>\n<p>This graph shows exciting data. As I mentioned, the backlog has accelerated its growth while sales per se have been maintained (the last quarters). In the medium term, both curves will tend to converge.</p>\n<p><b>Supermarket</b></p>\n<p>The supermarket sector is gigantic and today, Amazon's US market share in this segment is less than 3% of 2020 sales. Considering that Amazon's penetration in this segment is increasingly higher and that Amazon is learning more and more due to the integration of Whole Foods and the opening of Fresh, Go stores and above all, physical locations.</p>\n<p>The opening of the first Amazon Fresh store in California is very recent; we are talking about September 2020 and from that date until May 2020 the number has risen to 12. Considering the pace of openings, it is clear that Amazon wants to focus on an Omnichannel model where you can buy physically or online, whichever best suits your needs at any given time.</p>\n<p>Amazon stores average 35,000 feet in size, selling about $754 per foot, in line with comparables such as (Wegmans, Kroger, Ahold) so the pace of Amazon's store rollout will mean interesting incremental sales (depending on the number of stores)</p>\n<p>On the other hand Amazon is focusing on the consumer experience.Amazon Dash Cartis turning the shopping experience into something totally different. It will have a small initial learning curve for the consumer, but it substantially improves the supermarket shopping experience once the concept is understood. We are talking about a supermarket cart with intelligence to account for every product you put inside automatically. You can leave with the purchase without having to go through the checkout or similar, and to all this add, it lets you know how much you have spent at each moment, making the experience much more efficient.</p>\n<p>Therefore Amazon offers an omnichannel experience in which you can buy online and receive same-day delivery for free (on orders over $50 for prime users). You can also place the order and pick it up at the store or simply buy it in the store itself; let's say it's a similar approach to Inditex.</p>\n<p>Having the ability to do click &amp; collect or simply order to home delivery allows stores to leverage stores in various ways that will generate operational leverage and increased margins as order volumes increase.</p>\n<p>The current trend is towards healthy food and in Amazon Fresh Stores, there is ample space for fresh and prepared food; we have space for fresh seafood, a sushi bar or even fresh pizza in the supermarket itself.</p>\n<p>Reviews of the Amazon Fresh stores on google are very positive, with an average of 4.3 stars across all 12 locations and over 3,000 votes.</p>\n<p>In a survey conducted by UBS in its 7th annual eCommerce survey, all respondents were asked the main reasons for buying online. With 43% of the answers, the most chosen was the convenience and comfort of doing it. It was a key point for the penetration to continue increasing since it is not because of something temporary such as prices, greater selection, but because of something structural.</p>\n<p>On the opposite side, reasons for not buying online would be in the first position with 45% \"I prefer to see and touch the product.\" Another main reason is that it is easier to buy physically and this can be key, making online shopping more accessible with improvements to the process itself.</p>\n<p>To get an idea of how the Amazon Groceries process works we have the following scheme:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/177141503cc09a782b0fc3ec7df8cd63\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"309\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Looking at the schematic, it is easy to understand how Whole Foods fits into the process. Having incorporated physical stores, they serve as a logistics hub for shipments, allowing Amazon to improve efficiency.</p>\n<p>In addition to being focused on all the aspects mentioned above, Amazon has also been concerned about generating its own brand, where margins are higher. An example of Amazon's own brands can be seen below.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/10f30cc5515047623531828738fa6180\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"293\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Especially in the last few years (since 2017), Amazon's own brand has been significantly boosted. We talked about that in 2017 there were less than 20 Amazon own brands and very few products for sale. Currently, it has more than 120 own brands and 22,617 available. In addition, Amazon's own brand has an average of 4.3 stars reflecting consumer satisfaction levels.</p>\n<p><b>Amazon Ads</b></p>\n<p>This is one of the biggest surprises and most undervalued assets that Amazon currently has. Advertising revenue is a source of income that is growing at an accelerated rate; we are talking about the fact that only 5 years ago, it was non-existent and now it is doubling every two years:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1174f49304a8d987eeffaabd69393d14\" tg-width=\"548\" tg-height=\"412\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">This evolution makes sense, considering that Amazon is the most powerful showcase globally to sell products, so being able to appear in the top positions is undoubtedly something very interesting for products. We are talking about a gigantic market where Amazon is just scratching the surface.</p>\n<p>Considering the advertising spending of listed defensive consumer companies, we can get an idea of the size of this market, where Amazon has not yet monetized practically anything. Proof of the potential is simply to look at the growth in sales over the last few years, which gives us an idea of what is behind this market.</p>\n<p>Advertising continues to shift to digital, and according to eMarketer, online advertising will account for approximately 64% of total advertising by 2024. This makes sense considering that it is much more direct advertising and reaches the consumer better than traditional media (TV, radio).</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5af8cc7425a991f2e6d6e94f71d29fbd\" tg-width=\"568\" tg-height=\"354\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Amazon within digital advertising is the greenest, in earlier stages while Google and Facebook are already much more mature advertising platforms.</p>\n<p>It is undoubtedly effective advertising, do we have doubts that it is a boost in sales to appear at the top of the most important Marketplace in the world? We certainly do not. We believe that it is a part of income that makes a lot of sense and will grow exponentially. The structure of Amazon searches is usually as follows:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/18aa88ac767b673ccddb587eb8bc7d01\" tg-width=\"623\" tg-height=\"458\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p>\n<p><b>Amazon Healthcare</b></p>\n<p>Although you find little more than a footnote about the Healthcare part of the business in Amazon's accounts, Amazon and TAM's plans for this segment are very strong. In November 2020Amazon Carewas approved in WA and will be present in 50 states by the summer and enable the distribution of prescription drugs, opening up a range for exciting new revenues.</p>\n<p>Amazon Care is Amazon's online clinic, which is expanding staff from the end of 2020. Amazon care launches as an internal trial (many Amazon divisions are born this way) in autumn 2019, offering a virtual medical clinic to employees to facilitate access to high-quality primary care online (although home visits are available in some areas). This initiative makes perfect sense in the United States, where healthcare is not universal and health insurance is expensive.</p>\n<p>With Amazon Care you also have urgent care through its application; the services offered by the application are:</p>\n<ul>\n <li>Make an appointment</li>\n <li>In-person follow-up care (select states only)</li>\n <li>Medical examinations</li>\n <li>24/7 service team, 365 days a year.</li>\n <li>Recipes delivered to your home.</li>\n <li>Vaccines.</li>\n <li>Virtual consultation.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Within the application itself you have Care Chat, a chat that allows you to connect with registered nurses to get advice on health problems.</p>\n<p>Amazon intends to offer this service to independent companies seeking to provide this service for their employees and families. This segment will take time and where it is necessary to have a long-term vision, although the potential is certainly high.</p>\n<p>Amazon is interested not only in the pharmacy business, a B2C business but also in the B2B segment of medical device distribution, which would save a lot of paperwork for hospitals as it is a more direct distribution agreement that could save administrative procedures such as GPOs.</p>\n<p>Concerning the pharmacy side, it is clear that Amazon fits mostly into the hybrid physical plus online presence, emphasizing the online side.</p>\n<p>The combination of Whole Foods + Amazon and Prime Now is powerful for this approach and Amazon already distributes many pharma products. However, I expect a substantial increase and greater efficiency (in terms of delivery times in Europe) in adding new products to the platform.</p>\n<p>It is clear that Amazon is interested in the points mentioned above and this is reflected in its chronological evolution:</p>\n<ul>\n <li>In 2018 Amazon launches its own brand: Basic Care.</li>\n <li>In 2018 it acquired an online pharmacy: PillPack, which operates with a digital license in 49 states covering 90% of American households.</li>\n <li>Late 2018 reported talks with startup Xealth and the hospital network to allow doctors to purchase medical devices.</li>\n <li>Reported in 2018 negotiations to buy MedPlus a company with 1,400 pharmacy outlets in India.</li>\n <li>September 2019 launches Amazon Care.</li>\n <li>B2B growth has been more than x10 since 2016.</li>\n <li>March 2021 national expansion of Amazon Care to begin in the summer of 2021.</li>\n <li>Launch of Amazon Pharmacy in 2020.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Selling pharmacy products with the Whole Foods combination allows for 2-hour delivery in the USA, which is very interesting thanks to Amazon's logistical features.</p>\n<p>Amazon has been taking steps in this direction for a few years and the most complicated part, which is to establish the infrastructure, is already more than done. Right now, Amazon can sell in the U.S. both online and via \"mail,\" the two most widely used, so its entry into this segment is already complete:</p>\n<p>The final launch ofAmazon Pharmacycame in November 2020 through which prescription drugs will be available. It is currently approved in 45 states which means covering 90% of the American population. Amazon Pharmacy has a proposal to save 80% on generic and 40% on brand-name drugs when you do not pay with insurance and compare the price you get on Amazon with that of another possible distributor.</p>\n<p>For any user who does not have insurance, currently, the prices offered by Amazon are the lowest. Those Prime users on Prime RX will receive discounts between 40-80% with deliveries of less than 2 days (free delivery).</p>\n<p>The Amazon Pharmacy market is gigantic; we are talking about a market that moves more than $350b a year where two-thirds are distributed in retail and one-third via mail. Amazon is already able to reach the retail market and is working on reaching the mail order part, as this is a different market that usually works for chronic ailment drugs on autopilot.</p>\n<p>An important point provided by Amazon Pharmacy is the collection of user data. As an online registry, you have the data of the profile of medicines that a certain person consumes, so this information is precious for certain players.</p>\n<p>There are currently three Amazon pharmacy services:</p>\n<ol>\n <li><b>Amazon Pharmacy:</b>allows customers to order prescription drugs for home delivery. Orders are delivered in discreet packaging to the customer's preferred address. Medications require a prescription from a licensed health care provider.</li>\n</ol>\n<ol>\n <li><b>PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy:</b>part of Amazon Pharmacy and remains a distinct service for customers taking multiple medications daily for chronic conditions.</li>\n</ol>\n<ol>\n <li><b>Amazon Prime:</b>Offers Prime members access to low prices on many brand names and generic prescription drugs when paying without insurance. It can be used to get discounts of up to 80% on generic drugs and 40% on brand-name drugs at more than 50,000 participating pharmacies nationwide, including Amazon Pharmacy and the PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy service.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Understanding where Amazon is positioned, the opportunity is enormous:</p>\n<ul>\n <li>Retail sale of medicines</li>\n <li>B2B sales of medical devices</li>\n <li>Online medical care.</li>\n</ul>\n<p><b>Gaming and Twitch</b></p>\n<p>Amazon has made several 2014 acquisitions related to gaming; the chronology would be as follows:</p>\n<ol>\n <li>In 2014 Amazon acquires Doublé Helix Games.</li>\n <li>Also in 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch.</li>\n <li>In 2016 it launched a tool: Lumberyard that enables game development.</li>\n <li>In 2016, it acquired the online gaming portal \"Curse.\"</li>\n <li>2018 acquires GameSparks.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Of all the acquisitions made, absolute reality is twitch, achieving spectacular user and viewing metrics and wild growth.</p>\n<p>The future lies in the cloud and subscriptions, as well as in in-game purchases. Console and game sales have been flat for a few years or with fragile growth, and it is the subscription, cloud and multiplayer, and in-game purchases that have been growing.</p>\n<p>In the future, it is foreseeable that this trend will accelerate with cloud gaming being the clear dominator and console sales declining at high rates, so positioning in this segment will be key to absorb sales in the form of subscription: PlayStation Now, GeForce Now, Stadia.</p>\n<p>Distribution has already changed a lot but from now on the changes are expected to intensify. In the past, the Publisher published the game on the platform or console and the platform or console delivered it to the consumer.</p>\n<p>The new distribution will start from the cloud so that the relationship will start from Azure, AWS or the corresponding player. The broadband provider will come into play and finally, the corresponding cloud platform (Stadia, PlayStation Now...). In this part, there will clearly be a strong growth and where everything remains to be done and positioned.</p>\n<p><b>Music and Video</b></p>\n<p>The $8.45 billion acquisition of Metro Goldwyn Mayer(NYSE:MGM)is significant for Amazon, the company's second-largest acquisition after the $13.7 billion Whole Foods deal in 2017, but representing just half of 1% of AMZN's market capitalization.</p>\n<p>Through the acquisition, AMZN gains access to MGM's extensive library of more than 4,000 films, including notable franchises such as James Bond, Rocky and Tomb Raider. AMZN also acquires 17,000 television programs, including series (Fargo, The Handmaid's Tale) and shows (Shark Tank, The Voice).</p>\n<p>MGM accumulates more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys. Overall, the MGM deal should allow Amazon to create a more compelling Video offering to attract new subscribers for the Prime ecosystem. The great advantage of streaming and Prime subscription is that it is a business of scale where MGM's acquisition costs are diluted the broader the user base, which is enhanced by this acquisition.</p>\n<p>With 175M users on Prime video and 200 on Prime, this acquisition will possibly catalyze to create new subscribers.</p>\n<p>MGM's content is important and the intellectual property acquired by Amazon, which will allow it to produce more original and exclusive content, which will allow it to compete in a more relevant way with Netflix and Disney.</p>\n<p>We do not rule out that there may be more acquisitions on the video side. The larger the subscriber base, the higher the acquisition costs are diluted over a higher base, positively feeding back into the Prime ecosystem.</p>\n<p>As for the price, it is clear that it has not been a cheap purchase, although the important thing is what its integration means more than what MGM currently generates. We are talking about 25x EBITDA, which is in the highest range of M&amp;A in the average sector. It is understandable considering the current valuations in the markets; of course these have not helped the price to be \"cheap.\" From a broad point of view the integration makes sense in the ecosystem that Amazon is trying to create with Prime.</p>\n<p>When it comes to integrating MGM into Amazon, an important question arises: Is Amazon going to do without the 60% of MGM's revenue generated from content licensing? Is it not going to do without it?</p>\n<p>In the first case, it would become exclusive content of Amazon, generating more value for Amazon Video; in the second case it would not contribute much value to Amazon Video considering that it would not be exclusive content.</p>\n<p><b>Venture Capital</b></p>\n<p>Amazon allocates a small part of its cash to investments in startups and although it is not transparent about this, we do know the intentions of these investments.</p>\n<p>The Amazon Alexa Fund (200M) has a focus on integrating health issues into the home by investing in startups such as Aiva (a virtual assistant that connects seniors with their healthcare service), Tonal (artificial intelligence for home fitness) and Zwift (a virtual cycling app).</p>\n<p>It has recently launched another fund that will invest in Indian startups, mostly related to Healthcare fabrics.</p>\n<p><b>Risks</b></p>\n<ul>\n <li>Covering too many different products or markets: The bets on Amazon Music, Amazon Video and the like, at the moment do not have too much of a view to succeed. Amazon's purpose indeed is to offer an attractive package, not the product separately.</li>\n <li>Bezos' departure should not affect too much considering the company's size, but it is clear that he has been a key figure in Amazon's evolution.</li>\n <li>Regulation. A company of Amazon's size will always face regulatory risks.</li>\n <li>A slowdown in AWS is currently driving operating profit.</li>\n <li>That all the optionality of new business lines does not end up fitting.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Waymo, although it may not seem like it, is a threat to Amazon. The number of miles traveled by Waymo is increasing and its development is becoming more mature.</p>\n<p>Google with its powerful search engine could create an interesting combination with the shopping part in which you buy through Google, the retailers have the inventory and the logistics are Waymo itself delivering the product autonomously in a short period of time:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/495a0f59e25265e21fd12b548f93b3f1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"167\">Amazon has been working for years on drone delivery and making deliveries increasingly efficient, so it has been protecting itself from this potential latent risk for years.</p>\n<p>In the end Amazon wants the process to be as follows:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9b304d1db1ca34a56deecd34a2e89a2c\" tg-width=\"613\" tg-height=\"344\"><b>Working Capital</b></p>\n<p>To understand Amazon's FCF, it is important to talk about Amazon's working capital changes, as these are very peculiar. The first quarter is always very negative, penalizing the CFO. The following quarters the Working Capital changes neutralize the effect of the first quarter, bringing cash flow to Amazon. This happens mainly because at the end of the year there are many pending payments to suppliers and expenses to be settled, so that at the beginning of the year when these accounts are settled, the changes in working capital are very negative, hurting Amazon's operating cash flow.</p>\n<p><b>Profitability</b></p>\n<p>Amazon's profitability has varied substantially as they have started investing aggressively in the business and growing their assets and capital employed considerably. We are talking about an 80-fold increase in assets since 2006, which reflects the lines I have previously discussed.</p>\n<p>As margins are expanding, the path of improving return on assets and capital employed has returned, with ROCE currently at 20%, ROE at 23% and ROA at 7%. Undoubtedly, these are levels that indicate that Amazon is a quality company. As a note, Amazon is in a period of intensive investments and with a clear potential for margin expansion in the future, so it would be foreseeable that these metrics will continue to rise.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9b00f1639fd6bc917998f038f3ff60ec\" tg-width=\"597\" tg-height=\"335\"></p>\n<p><b>Valuation</b></p>\n<p>Amazon is a complicated company to value because of its size and the point at which it finds itself; large investments and very high margin expansion potential.</p>\n<p>It currently trades at around 60x EV/FCF. Still, if we normalize both Working Capital and Capex (it has increased from 5% of sales to 9%), we would be talking about 35x EV/FCF for a company with very high quality and with most of the divisions only scratching the surface of their potential.</p>\n<p>Just by looking at the multiples, we could already say that it is reasonable considering the prospects and position of the business.</p>\n<p>It currently trades at about 36x EV/FCF, below its average EV/FCF multiple considering a normalized WC and normalized CAPEX. This already gives us an idea that it can be a company to consider as Amazon today is a much stronger business than 10 years ago.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0d462cfa442b191e5e27213180f5ad9b\" tg-width=\"556\" tg-height=\"336\">If we project sales and FCF assuming conservative assumptions and normalizing both Cash Flow and Working Capital we obtain the following estimates:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8546c6d09613082ad5d6e1fdef607bea\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"214\">Under these assumptions, we performed a valuation by multiples and DCF:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/2d0e31590998b2af7f9f7209db841f59\" tg-width=\"251\" tg-height=\"410\">We would be buying Amazon at a reasonable price without assuming that any of the above optionalities explode, so the margin of safety is wide even though the upside is tight.</p>\n<p><b>Conclusion</b></p>\n<p>Amazon is a company that is reaping the rewards after decades of sowing. These are the years where surprises start to emerge, margins start to expand, and more optionality starts appearing. Having the opportunity to acquire a company of this quality at a \"reasonable\" price is one of those opportunities, from a profitability-risk point of view, that in the long term make the difference.</p>\n<p>It is important to closely follow the evolution of the different segments and the optionality associated with them and the ARPUS of the international segment since it is the one with the greatest potential.</p>","source":"seekingalpha","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Amazon: A No-Brainer For The Next 10 Years</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nAmazon: A No-Brainer For The Next 10 Years\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2021-06-09 23:38 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4433845-amazon-stock-amzn-no-brainer-for-the-next-10-years><strong>seekingalpha</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Summary\n\nAmazon maintains high advertising potential.\nThe recent approval of Amazon Pharmacy provides a huge TAM.\nThe company has an interesting future operating leverage due to high capex deployed in...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4433845-amazon-stock-amzn-no-brainer-for-the-next-10-years\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"AMZN":"亚马逊"},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4433845-amazon-stock-amzn-no-brainer-for-the-next-10-years","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/5a36db9d73b4222bc376d24ccc48c8a4","article_id":"1127823989","content_text":"Summary\n\nAmazon maintains high advertising potential.\nThe recent approval of Amazon Pharmacy provides a huge TAM.\nThe company has an interesting future operating leverage due to high capex deployed in logistics.\n\nInvestment Thesis\nAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN)is one of the best-known companies in the world, it seems difficult to discover something new in it but the reality is that there is a lot to discover. After performing this in-depth analysis of Amazon, I have realized that most segments are in their early stages. The current valuation is very attractive considering that they are just scratching the surface of the potential of these divisions.\nAmazon Healthcare has a huge TAM through Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Care (telemedicine). Both divisions are newly approved, so as of today, they contribute virtually nothing to Amazon's bottom line.\nThe retail part has a long way to go, with a lot of room for growth with its omnichannel for supermarkets, increases in ARPU, FBA.\nOn the other hand, digital advertising is eating the world, and Amazon has recently been getting into it (since 2015). Part of Amazon's advertising five years ago was generating hardly any profit, now it is doubling revenues every two years and this has just begun. Amazon is the most powerful product marketplace globally, so it makes perfect sense that the wild growth in advertising continues to grow at high rates.\nWe still have the optionality in gaming, the growth in prime ARPUs, the Audio and Video division, in short, numerous segments that have not yet started to contribute sales and Amazon is currently trading at about 35x normalized FCF, expensive? In our opinion considerably cheaper than the multiples at which the market is trading.\nProduct\nAmazon is a company that has always had a long-term focus. This means that since its inception, it has renounced short-term profitability to become one of the most important companies in the world in the long term. There is no doubt that it has achieved this goal and we are right at the moment where Amazon is beginning to reap what has been sown for so many years.\nIn its early days, Amazon focused on the user experience when shopping online. Amazon offered a simple, accessible and universal way to buy products to guarantee the highest number of reviews and arrive in record time. In addition, acquiring a product on Amazon carries the guarantee of delivery of the same; this means that if you have any kind of problem with the reception of the product, Amazon solves it in record time.\nThis first phase has been very successful and has been the foundation of Amazon 2.0, which has been integrating more and more services and improving its original product: e-commerce. This image summarizes very well the evolution of Amazon from a Prime 1.0 to a Prime with a much higher added value.\nThanks to this user experience created by Amazon, it has been one of the main contributors (or rather the main contributor) to the explosive evolution of e-commerce, making its penetration increasingly higher and its growth very high.\nAccording toStatistadata, e-commerce penetration worldwide is 50.8% in 2021 and is expected to reach 63.1% in 2025. Average spending per person exceeds $700 per year. Between 2020 and 2025, e-commerce revenues are expected to grow by 50%, so far from being a mature market, it is still growing strongly.\nAmazon Prime\nWe all know what this service entails, so I am not going to explain it at length. More and more new services are being integrated into Amazon Prime, making it one of the must-have subscriptions for users.\nA chronological summary of Amazon's evolution in the US (its most mature market) is essential to understand the evolution of prices and value-added over time.\nAmazonlaunches Prime subscription in the US in 2005for $79 per year. In 2006, Amazon moved forward and launched Fulfilled by Amazon. This service allows sellers to have a store on Amazon and ship their products for a fee. These products then become eligible for Amazon Prime, increasing the assortment and selection available to customers.\nStarting in 2011, Amazon included Prime Video in subscriptions, which meant 5,000 movies and series for every subscriber.\n2014 was a great year for Prime, not only because there were many new services added, but also because there was the first price increase, Amazon raises from $79 to $99 the subscription in the U.S. This same year Amazon Prime Pantry is launched, offering customers the ability to buy essential supermarket products (toilet paper, drinks, creams) for a meager fee and regularly. Also in 2014, Amazon Music was launched with the Prime subscription, giving access to a catalog of 60M songs, on a par with the best streaming services. Amazon photos are also launched, a service that offers high-resolution photo storage with Amazon's own subscription. Finally, Amazon launches; Amazon Now, a supermarket service in which you receive your products in 2 hours (or one in certain areas) with free shipping cost from $ 50.\nIn 2015 Amazon Prime Day was created to celebrate the 20th anniversary, in which 24 hours offers to appear to be the day of Amazon's biggest sale since its launch.\nIn 2016, same-day delivery to 27 metropolitan areas was introduced. Prime also joins Prime, Prime Reading, which offered more than 1,000 books and magazines free of charge.\nIn 2017, an agreement was formed with Chase to create a credit card that offers Prime subscribers at no added cost a 5% cash back at Amazon or Whole Foods for purchases made. Prime Wardrobe is also launched in 2017, a service that allows you to try on clothes, jewelry or similar in a period of 7 days before having to pay. That same year Amazon Key is launched, a smart lock that allows opening the home from the Smartphone to trusted people (seeing through an integrated camera), open the door from your own Smartphone or with a personal code. In addition to this, it allows Prime members to receive Amazon packages in their garage, house, without needing a key, simply through the APP.\nIn 2017, the acquisition of Whole Foods was made, which is integrated into Amazon with discounts, free shipping or cashback when paying by card.\nIn 2018 comes a second price increase from $99 to the current $119, an increase of $40 since its launch in 2005.\nIn 2019, Amazon Fresh launched Prime subscribers, offering free in select cities fresh grocery delivery service.\nFinally, in 2020 Amazon Prime Gaming is launched, a service built into the Prime subscription that provides free games, exclusive gaming content and a free Twitch subscription.\nThe evolution of Prime has been impressive, incorporating new services year after year to make Amazon's subscription indispensable in our lives. Seeing the evolution in subscribers, it seems evident that it has achieved its purpose.\nPrime's evolution has taken us to200M subscribers in 2020globally of which 153M are from the US.\nSource: Emarketer, Statista\nGiven the penetration, Prime's growth has slowed down in recent years, although users are becoming more and more accustomed to the service and it is becoming one of the essential subscriptions. This in our opinion, will lead to pricing power, something we have already seen in the United States, where the price for the subscription is substantially higher than the international subscription.\nBelow is a comparison of subscription costs in different countries:\nPrices have risen compared to2018(these are as of year-end 2020). It is expected that prices will continue to rise gradually to generate higher earnings per user (ARPU).\nThe first thing we notice is that the disparity between countries is high. In my opinion, where there is more room for prices to converge is in Europe, as Prime becomes more mature and incorporates higher quality content (as it has done in the US). This table shows that there is still a long way to go in terms of ARPU. Even in the US the price of an Amazon Prime subscription, taking into account everything included (music, video, access to Pharmacy, free shipping, storage), is well below other comparable subscriptions.\nPenetration in the United States is at its highest, 77% of people who buy on Amazon are Prime users. In 2020 this percentage was 67% so we have substantial growth; in fact it is one of the highest growth rates in the last decade.\nThe Prime user is more profitable since he/she tends to spend 2-3 times more per month than a non-Prime user. In e-commerce, Amazon is the clear dominator with amarket sharein the United States of more than 50%. Being the clear dominator in a market thatwill grow at double digitsfor the next 5 years (probably also for the next 10 years) is undoubtedly very interesting. Another important point is that retail is a huge market where Amazon is just scratching the surface but has certainly positioned itself to capture more and more market share as the years go by. Amazon has only9% ofUS retail sales, while Walmart has 9.5%. To give you a sense of Amazon's traction, in 2019 it only had 6.8%. Although it is clear that COVID has helped it gain traction, over the years it has always been gaining more market share. Amazon knows this and is substantially increasing fulfillment CAPEX.\nThe maturity of the Prime subscriber is also something important. As the years go by the Prime subscriber tends to consume more, so we could say that even a Prime subscriber has a rump-up period as we can see in this graph:\nIn certain markets such as India, where Amazon has focused a lot of attention and investment, Prime membership growth has been exceptional. According to the head of Prime in the country, Prime membership has doubled between 4Q17 and 2Q19. While some of that growth may have been driven by Amazon's material investment in local digital content and Prime rate incentives, we believe many of these members will become more engaged retail customers as their financial situation improves over time.\nThere are doubts about whether the momentum resulting from COVID in e-commerce will slow down with the reopening of e-commerce. Data from the first quarter of 2021 (with a reasonable reopening) shows that far from slowing down, growth has even accelerated above pre-COVID levels. This makes sense as certain users are reluctant to shop online and have been relatively forced during the quarantine. Having made purchases online has allowed them to lose that fear and become e-commerce users that would have taken longer to become so had it not been for COVID.\nCurrently, 66% of GMVs (Gross Merchandise Value or total amount transacted in resales without discounts) come from the United States, the most mature market. In the future, the projection is that the mix of GMVs between US and Non-US will converge to 50% since it is in the rest of the markets where growth is currently highest.\nMarket penetration is gradual and to get an idea of how it is evolving; we must look at the most mature market: the United States.\nCurrently, 67% of U.S. households with internet have a Prime subscription.\nFulfillment by Amazon (FBA)\nMore than half of the units purchased on Amazon's global marketplaces are sold by third-party merchants: sellers large and small who benefit from having access to Amazon's millions of customers. Your Seller Care business enables you to offer a wide selection of products by engaging these sellers and helping them manage their business on the platform.\nFulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a program that allows sellers to ship their inventory to Amazon's distribution centers, where they create, pack and ship orders for them, as well as handle customer service and returns for them. Their products become part of the Prime program, so they reach an even larger audience, and the seller spends fewer resources on inventory management and shipping.\nFBA started in 2005 with just a handful of vendors. Teams of business and technical professionals build all the systems that enable it, including tools that provide real-time data and reports and allow companies to manage their inventories remotely and from any device.\nThe fulfillment part benefits from operational leverage, managing to contain unit costs and generating a higher and higher free cash flow. To understand the service in greater depth, we can look at Amazon's FBA service fees to third parties, which occupy almost 50% of the GMVs.\nAmazon has been investing in its fulfillment network for many years, reinforcing its increasingly evident MOAT regarding logistics capacity and customer experience. So high has been the deployment of Capex that today it even rivals companies whose core business is precisely that:\nSource: Annual report, FactSet estimates\nWith the scale that Amazon has acquired, it would not be unreasonable to become a more efficient logistics platform than even pure competitors.\nThe graph shows how the simplest route an order can take is directly from the seller to the buyer through a third-party service, where Amazon never actually touches the product, only puts the Marketplace.\nFor orders that do go through Amazon's network, the company groups inventory into three different categories:\n\nSmall classifiable: consumer items that make up the majority of the business. These are everyday items such as books, video games, and small-weight items.\nLarge sortable: Items with a higher weight may require more manual systems due to their size.\nLarge unsortable: Items that due to their size or weight, are handled with less automation, often in different locations and require more specialization for their preparation, such as specific packaging. Most of these shipments are delivered by third parties, mostly XPO.\n\nSmall and large collection and packaging facilities are usually located in the same building but separate divisions.\nA key defining characteristic of small and large sortable items is that they can fit into a box placed on a conveyor belt for automatic sorting.\nIntuitively, small sortable items are also where the company has implemented the most automation, including robotic picking functionality.\n2013 was a turning point for FBA. We are talking about the 1,050 fulfillment network points today; only 58 were open before 2014, or 5%. Before 2014 there were no airports; there was hardly any infrastructure compared to today. 2020 is once again a turning point; 45% of fulfillment centers have been or will be built after 2020.\nThis has undoubtedly been reflected in the 2020 CAPEX, which has risen considerably compared to previous years, from 5% to 9%. Excluding the increase in 2020 CAPEX, annualized growth since 2013 is 37%, above sales growth. Not all of this growth is due to fulfillment. Still, reading the letters from management, it is clear that a large part of this growth comes from this division, saying that the costs associated with \"last mile delivery\" had increased substantially.\nThis Capex is reflected in the evolution of the square meters of fulfillment:\nGrowth in line with all of the above.\nAmazon is also increasing its aircraft fleet, which started in 2016 following the agreement with ATSG and Atlas Air to lease 40 aircraft (20+20). Currently, the fleet of aircraft under lease is 82 plus 11 owned aircraft, a total of 93, so it has more than doubled the fleet in less than 5 years. These movements make clear Amazon's intentions to boost the air service. If it continues simultaneously, we would have about 200 aircraft in 2016 between leasing and ownership.\nIn the following image, we can see Amazon's air gateway network, with its usual spans. The network represents a key piece of the company's proprietary distribution network that has not been replicated by any other retailer and is a key function that allows Amazon to operate without the networks of third-party carriers.\nSource: Chaddick Institute\nIn Europe, it also has a network in the main capitals: Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Rome, Cologne and Leipzig.\nThe current gap in the fleet is significant concerning UPS and FedEx, but Capex is deploying Amazon would not be surprised to have a similar fleet by 2030.\nAnd all this for what? Considering how much Amazon is spending on logistics, it's clear it has a purpose. FBA sales went from $1b in 2011 to $40b in 2020, a significant jump. Rumors indicate that Amazon would like to start competing with UPS and FedEx in offering their services not only for its Marketplace but also for third parties. This may be indicative of the program launched in 2017 \"Seller Flex) which is a variant of the FBA program but in-house. This means that you can leverage Amazon's logistics tools without having to deposit inventory in Amazon's fulfillment centers. This is already a very similar service to that provided by pure shipping players.\nFollowing the launch of FBA Onsite, Amazon began internal testing of Amazon Shipping, a third-party shipping service that complemented FBA onsite. Early on reports suggested that Amazon would be able to undercut third-party carriers by leveraging the capacity it already used for its own deliveries and eliminating added costs. After more than two years, Amazon Shipping remains an internal trial put on hold by the arrival of COVID, as Amazon itself needed all of its logistics capacity for internal use.\nIs there really an opportunity here? Let's look at the sales and operating profit of the main players: UPS and FedEx.\nBetween them they generate 40% of Amazon's sales and 53% of operating profit. Obviously, Amazon will not capture all the business from both, but it gives us an idea that it is a large market that can provide incremental sales for Amazon.\nConsidering all the opportunities on the table: Pharmacy, Grocery, Gaming, Advertising) Amazon Shipping will likely be delayed for a while, not one of the most immediate priorities. The deployed Capex itself serves for internal use with much more intense value chain control.\nWe can really see the benefits of that CAPEX for fulfillment in the gross margin. The cost of sales is associated with Amazon's shipping costs, both in-house and through third parties. As in-house shipping has been gaining scale through CAPEX deployment, the gross margin has been increasing, and this is entirely normal given that this segment is pure volume. This means that a company that does not move Amazon's volume will not be compensated for the Capex deployed by Amazon. Still, on the other hand, a company like Amazon that increases the number of shipments in double digits year after year shows that the higher the volume, the higher the cost savings per shipment that the CAPEX deployed will compensate. This is a key point, as Amazon has a greater weight in own shipping and less in third parties, it will acquire a higher gross margin because the cost of own shipping is significantly lower than using a third party such as UPS or FedEx.\nAWS\nWe believe that AWS will continue to be the dominant player in IaaS/PaaS as it captures most of the future growth in the industry due to its huge customer base.\nThere should be plenty of growth opportunities for all three vendors. Gartner's forecast for IaaS and PaaS implies a 25% revenue CAGR between 2020 and 2023 and a market of nearly $200 billion by 2023.\nAs for margins, they have danced between 20-30% despite aggressive pricing plans with a total of 20 discounts between 2018 and 2020 and so far 1 in 2021. The drop in margins in 2019 was due to an increase in investments for sales and marketing issues, which was only a short-term issue.\nAmazon is the clear dominator in the cloud market and although it has lost market share in recent years, this has not prevented it from growing at very high rates. What's interesting? The expectation is that thecloud marketwill grow from 2020 to 2025 at a compound rate of 17.5%. Considering that it is currently the company's division with the best margins, this is great news for Amazon's future.\nAmazon'sbacklogis accelerating its growth; we talk about the last year has grown more than 50% YoY while AWS sales growth is more in line with 30%. The backlog is contracts with an average maturity period of 3 years that end up materializing in sales, so seeing the rate at which it is growing is certainly very interesting.\nBacklog contracts are usually with large companies to whom they make offers with consequent price cuts. AWS is being aggressive but can afford to be given the margins it operates on.\nThe backlog currently exceeds $50b, which should materialize over an average period of 3 years. This will be AWS sales but does not mean that these are the only sales that will materialize as there will continue to be growth in shorter-term contracts as at present.\nSource: Annual Report & Morgan Stanley Estimates\nThis graph shows exciting data. As I mentioned, the backlog has accelerated its growth while sales per se have been maintained (the last quarters). In the medium term, both curves will tend to converge.\nSupermarket\nThe supermarket sector is gigantic and today, Amazon's US market share in this segment is less than 3% of 2020 sales. Considering that Amazon's penetration in this segment is increasingly higher and that Amazon is learning more and more due to the integration of Whole Foods and the opening of Fresh, Go stores and above all, physical locations.\nThe opening of the first Amazon Fresh store in California is very recent; we are talking about September 2020 and from that date until May 2020 the number has risen to 12. Considering the pace of openings, it is clear that Amazon wants to focus on an Omnichannel model where you can buy physically or online, whichever best suits your needs at any given time.\nAmazon stores average 35,000 feet in size, selling about $754 per foot, in line with comparables such as (Wegmans, Kroger, Ahold) so the pace of Amazon's store rollout will mean interesting incremental sales (depending on the number of stores)\nOn the other hand Amazon is focusing on the consumer experience.Amazon Dash Cartis turning the shopping experience into something totally different. It will have a small initial learning curve for the consumer, but it substantially improves the supermarket shopping experience once the concept is understood. We are talking about a supermarket cart with intelligence to account for every product you put inside automatically. You can leave with the purchase without having to go through the checkout or similar, and to all this add, it lets you know how much you have spent at each moment, making the experience much more efficient.\nTherefore Amazon offers an omnichannel experience in which you can buy online and receive same-day delivery for free (on orders over $50 for prime users). You can also place the order and pick it up at the store or simply buy it in the store itself; let's say it's a similar approach to Inditex.\nHaving the ability to do click & collect or simply order to home delivery allows stores to leverage stores in various ways that will generate operational leverage and increased margins as order volumes increase.\nThe current trend is towards healthy food and in Amazon Fresh Stores, there is ample space for fresh and prepared food; we have space for fresh seafood, a sushi bar or even fresh pizza in the supermarket itself.\nReviews of the Amazon Fresh stores on google are very positive, with an average of 4.3 stars across all 12 locations and over 3,000 votes.\nIn a survey conducted by UBS in its 7th annual eCommerce survey, all respondents were asked the main reasons for buying online. With 43% of the answers, the most chosen was the convenience and comfort of doing it. It was a key point for the penetration to continue increasing since it is not because of something temporary such as prices, greater selection, but because of something structural.\nOn the opposite side, reasons for not buying online would be in the first position with 45% \"I prefer to see and touch the product.\" Another main reason is that it is easier to buy physically and this can be key, making online shopping more accessible with improvements to the process itself.\nTo get an idea of how the Amazon Groceries process works we have the following scheme:\nLooking at the schematic, it is easy to understand how Whole Foods fits into the process. Having incorporated physical stores, they serve as a logistics hub for shipments, allowing Amazon to improve efficiency.\nIn addition to being focused on all the aspects mentioned above, Amazon has also been concerned about generating its own brand, where margins are higher. An example of Amazon's own brands can be seen below.\nEspecially in the last few years (since 2017), Amazon's own brand has been significantly boosted. We talked about that in 2017 there were less than 20 Amazon own brands and very few products for sale. Currently, it has more than 120 own brands and 22,617 available. In addition, Amazon's own brand has an average of 4.3 stars reflecting consumer satisfaction levels.\nAmazon Ads\nThis is one of the biggest surprises and most undervalued assets that Amazon currently has. Advertising revenue is a source of income that is growing at an accelerated rate; we are talking about the fact that only 5 years ago, it was non-existent and now it is doubling every two years:\nThis evolution makes sense, considering that Amazon is the most powerful showcase globally to sell products, so being able to appear in the top positions is undoubtedly something very interesting for products. We are talking about a gigantic market where Amazon is just scratching the surface.\nConsidering the advertising spending of listed defensive consumer companies, we can get an idea of the size of this market, where Amazon has not yet monetized practically anything. Proof of the potential is simply to look at the growth in sales over the last few years, which gives us an idea of what is behind this market.\nAdvertising continues to shift to digital, and according to eMarketer, online advertising will account for approximately 64% of total advertising by 2024. This makes sense considering that it is much more direct advertising and reaches the consumer better than traditional media (TV, radio).\nAmazon within digital advertising is the greenest, in earlier stages while Google and Facebook are already much more mature advertising platforms.\nIt is undoubtedly effective advertising, do we have doubts that it is a boost in sales to appear at the top of the most important Marketplace in the world? We certainly do not. We believe that it is a part of income that makes a lot of sense and will grow exponentially. The structure of Amazon searches is usually as follows:\n\nAmazon Healthcare\nAlthough you find little more than a footnote about the Healthcare part of the business in Amazon's accounts, Amazon and TAM's plans for this segment are very strong. In November 2020Amazon Carewas approved in WA and will be present in 50 states by the summer and enable the distribution of prescription drugs, opening up a range for exciting new revenues.\nAmazon Care is Amazon's online clinic, which is expanding staff from the end of 2020. Amazon care launches as an internal trial (many Amazon divisions are born this way) in autumn 2019, offering a virtual medical clinic to employees to facilitate access to high-quality primary care online (although home visits are available in some areas). This initiative makes perfect sense in the United States, where healthcare is not universal and health insurance is expensive.\nWith Amazon Care you also have urgent care through its application; the services offered by the application are:\n\nMake an appointment\nIn-person follow-up care (select states only)\nMedical examinations\n24/7 service team, 365 days a year.\nRecipes delivered to your home.\nVaccines.\nVirtual consultation.\n\nWithin the application itself you have Care Chat, a chat that allows you to connect with registered nurses to get advice on health problems.\nAmazon intends to offer this service to independent companies seeking to provide this service for their employees and families. This segment will take time and where it is necessary to have a long-term vision, although the potential is certainly high.\nAmazon is interested not only in the pharmacy business, a B2C business but also in the B2B segment of medical device distribution, which would save a lot of paperwork for hospitals as it is a more direct distribution agreement that could save administrative procedures such as GPOs.\nConcerning the pharmacy side, it is clear that Amazon fits mostly into the hybrid physical plus online presence, emphasizing the online side.\nThe combination of Whole Foods + Amazon and Prime Now is powerful for this approach and Amazon already distributes many pharma products. However, I expect a substantial increase and greater efficiency (in terms of delivery times in Europe) in adding new products to the platform.\nIt is clear that Amazon is interested in the points mentioned above and this is reflected in its chronological evolution:\n\nIn 2018 Amazon launches its own brand: Basic Care.\nIn 2018 it acquired an online pharmacy: PillPack, which operates with a digital license in 49 states covering 90% of American households.\nLate 2018 reported talks with startup Xealth and the hospital network to allow doctors to purchase medical devices.\nReported in 2018 negotiations to buy MedPlus a company with 1,400 pharmacy outlets in India.\nSeptember 2019 launches Amazon Care.\nB2B growth has been more than x10 since 2016.\nMarch 2021 national expansion of Amazon Care to begin in the summer of 2021.\nLaunch of Amazon Pharmacy in 2020.\n\nSelling pharmacy products with the Whole Foods combination allows for 2-hour delivery in the USA, which is very interesting thanks to Amazon's logistical features.\nAmazon has been taking steps in this direction for a few years and the most complicated part, which is to establish the infrastructure, is already more than done. Right now, Amazon can sell in the U.S. both online and via \"mail,\" the two most widely used, so its entry into this segment is already complete:\nThe final launch ofAmazon Pharmacycame in November 2020 through which prescription drugs will be available. It is currently approved in 45 states which means covering 90% of the American population. Amazon Pharmacy has a proposal to save 80% on generic and 40% on brand-name drugs when you do not pay with insurance and compare the price you get on Amazon with that of another possible distributor.\nFor any user who does not have insurance, currently, the prices offered by Amazon are the lowest. Those Prime users on Prime RX will receive discounts between 40-80% with deliveries of less than 2 days (free delivery).\nThe Amazon Pharmacy market is gigantic; we are talking about a market that moves more than $350b a year where two-thirds are distributed in retail and one-third via mail. Amazon is already able to reach the retail market and is working on reaching the mail order part, as this is a different market that usually works for chronic ailment drugs on autopilot.\nAn important point provided by Amazon Pharmacy is the collection of user data. As an online registry, you have the data of the profile of medicines that a certain person consumes, so this information is precious for certain players.\nThere are currently three Amazon pharmacy services:\n\nAmazon Pharmacy:allows customers to order prescription drugs for home delivery. Orders are delivered in discreet packaging to the customer's preferred address. Medications require a prescription from a licensed health care provider.\n\n\nPillPack by Amazon Pharmacy:part of Amazon Pharmacy and remains a distinct service for customers taking multiple medications daily for chronic conditions.\n\n\nAmazon Prime:Offers Prime members access to low prices on many brand names and generic prescription drugs when paying without insurance. It can be used to get discounts of up to 80% on generic drugs and 40% on brand-name drugs at more than 50,000 participating pharmacies nationwide, including Amazon Pharmacy and the PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy service.\n\nUnderstanding where Amazon is positioned, the opportunity is enormous:\n\nRetail sale of medicines\nB2B sales of medical devices\nOnline medical care.\n\nGaming and Twitch\nAmazon has made several 2014 acquisitions related to gaming; the chronology would be as follows:\n\nIn 2014 Amazon acquires Doublé Helix Games.\nAlso in 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch.\nIn 2016 it launched a tool: Lumberyard that enables game development.\nIn 2016, it acquired the online gaming portal \"Curse.\"\n2018 acquires GameSparks.\n\nOf all the acquisitions made, absolute reality is twitch, achieving spectacular user and viewing metrics and wild growth.\nThe future lies in the cloud and subscriptions, as well as in in-game purchases. Console and game sales have been flat for a few years or with fragile growth, and it is the subscription, cloud and multiplayer, and in-game purchases that have been growing.\nIn the future, it is foreseeable that this trend will accelerate with cloud gaming being the clear dominator and console sales declining at high rates, so positioning in this segment will be key to absorb sales in the form of subscription: PlayStation Now, GeForce Now, Stadia.\nDistribution has already changed a lot but from now on the changes are expected to intensify. In the past, the Publisher published the game on the platform or console and the platform or console delivered it to the consumer.\nThe new distribution will start from the cloud so that the relationship will start from Azure, AWS or the corresponding player. The broadband provider will come into play and finally, the corresponding cloud platform (Stadia, PlayStation Now...). In this part, there will clearly be a strong growth and where everything remains to be done and positioned.\nMusic and Video\nThe $8.45 billion acquisition of Metro Goldwyn Mayer(NYSE:MGM)is significant for Amazon, the company's second-largest acquisition after the $13.7 billion Whole Foods deal in 2017, but representing just half of 1% of AMZN's market capitalization.\nThrough the acquisition, AMZN gains access to MGM's extensive library of more than 4,000 films, including notable franchises such as James Bond, Rocky and Tomb Raider. AMZN also acquires 17,000 television programs, including series (Fargo, The Handmaid's Tale) and shows (Shark Tank, The Voice).\nMGM accumulates more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys. Overall, the MGM deal should allow Amazon to create a more compelling Video offering to attract new subscribers for the Prime ecosystem. The great advantage of streaming and Prime subscription is that it is a business of scale where MGM's acquisition costs are diluted the broader the user base, which is enhanced by this acquisition.\nWith 175M users on Prime video and 200 on Prime, this acquisition will possibly catalyze to create new subscribers.\nMGM's content is important and the intellectual property acquired by Amazon, which will allow it to produce more original and exclusive content, which will allow it to compete in a more relevant way with Netflix and Disney.\nWe do not rule out that there may be more acquisitions on the video side. The larger the subscriber base, the higher the acquisition costs are diluted over a higher base, positively feeding back into the Prime ecosystem.\nAs for the price, it is clear that it has not been a cheap purchase, although the important thing is what its integration means more than what MGM currently generates. We are talking about 25x EBITDA, which is in the highest range of M&A in the average sector. It is understandable considering the current valuations in the markets; of course these have not helped the price to be \"cheap.\" From a broad point of view the integration makes sense in the ecosystem that Amazon is trying to create with Prime.\nWhen it comes to integrating MGM into Amazon, an important question arises: Is Amazon going to do without the 60% of MGM's revenue generated from content licensing? Is it not going to do without it?\nIn the first case, it would become exclusive content of Amazon, generating more value for Amazon Video; in the second case it would not contribute much value to Amazon Video considering that it would not be exclusive content.\nVenture Capital\nAmazon allocates a small part of its cash to investments in startups and although it is not transparent about this, we do know the intentions of these investments.\nThe Amazon Alexa Fund (200M) has a focus on integrating health issues into the home by investing in startups such as Aiva (a virtual assistant that connects seniors with their healthcare service), Tonal (artificial intelligence for home fitness) and Zwift (a virtual cycling app).\nIt has recently launched another fund that will invest in Indian startups, mostly related to Healthcare fabrics.\nRisks\n\nCovering too many different products or markets: The bets on Amazon Music, Amazon Video and the like, at the moment do not have too much of a view to succeed. Amazon's purpose indeed is to offer an attractive package, not the product separately.\nBezos' departure should not affect too much considering the company's size, but it is clear that he has been a key figure in Amazon's evolution.\nRegulation. A company of Amazon's size will always face regulatory risks.\nA slowdown in AWS is currently driving operating profit.\nThat all the optionality of new business lines does not end up fitting.\n\nWaymo, although it may not seem like it, is a threat to Amazon. The number of miles traveled by Waymo is increasing and its development is becoming more mature.\nGoogle with its powerful search engine could create an interesting combination with the shopping part in which you buy through Google, the retailers have the inventory and the logistics are Waymo itself delivering the product autonomously in a short period of time:\nAmazon has been working for years on drone delivery and making deliveries increasingly efficient, so it has been protecting itself from this potential latent risk for years.\nIn the end Amazon wants the process to be as follows:\nWorking Capital\nTo understand Amazon's FCF, it is important to talk about Amazon's working capital changes, as these are very peculiar. The first quarter is always very negative, penalizing the CFO. The following quarters the Working Capital changes neutralize the effect of the first quarter, bringing cash flow to Amazon. This happens mainly because at the end of the year there are many pending payments to suppliers and expenses to be settled, so that at the beginning of the year when these accounts are settled, the changes in working capital are very negative, hurting Amazon's operating cash flow.\nProfitability\nAmazon's profitability has varied substantially as they have started investing aggressively in the business and growing their assets and capital employed considerably. We are talking about an 80-fold increase in assets since 2006, which reflects the lines I have previously discussed.\nAs margins are expanding, the path of improving return on assets and capital employed has returned, with ROCE currently at 20%, ROE at 23% and ROA at 7%. Undoubtedly, these are levels that indicate that Amazon is a quality company. As a note, Amazon is in a period of intensive investments and with a clear potential for margin expansion in the future, so it would be foreseeable that these metrics will continue to rise.\n\nValuation\nAmazon is a complicated company to value because of its size and the point at which it finds itself; large investments and very high margin expansion potential.\nIt currently trades at around 60x EV/FCF. Still, if we normalize both Working Capital and Capex (it has increased from 5% of sales to 9%), we would be talking about 35x EV/FCF for a company with very high quality and with most of the divisions only scratching the surface of their potential.\nJust by looking at the multiples, we could already say that it is reasonable considering the prospects and position of the business.\nIt currently trades at about 36x EV/FCF, below its average EV/FCF multiple considering a normalized WC and normalized CAPEX. This already gives us an idea that it can be a company to consider as Amazon today is a much stronger business than 10 years ago.\nIf we project sales and FCF assuming conservative assumptions and normalizing both Cash Flow and Working Capital we obtain the following estimates:\nUnder these assumptions, we performed a valuation by multiples and DCF:\nWe would be buying Amazon at a reasonable price without assuming that any of the above optionalities explode, so the margin of safety is wide even though the upside is tight.\nConclusion\nAmazon is a company that is reaping the rewards after decades of sowing. These are the years where surprises start to emerge, margins start to expand, and more optionality starts appearing. Having the opportunity to acquire a company of this quality at a \"reasonable\" price is one of those opportunities, from a profitability-risk point of view, that in the long term make the difference.\nIt is important to closely follow the evolution of the different segments and the optionality associated with them and the ARPUS of the international segment since it is the one with the greatest potential.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":561,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"defaultTab":"followers","isTTM":true}