Amazon.com Inc., far from dominating the retail sector, is actually the weakest of the big U.S. players based on operating results, Moody’s Investors Service said Wednesday.
The e-commerce giant is the subject of a number of myths regarding its size and clout that mask the reality of its position compared with rivals like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT, -0.08% and Costco Wholesale Corp. COST, -0.03% , according to Charlie O’Shea, Moody’s vice president and lead retail analyst.
The perception that Amazon is poised to take over the grocery business via its acquisition of Whole Foods, which closed this week, is another myth, said O’Shea.
Estimates for the Amazon Prime membership base are also wildly inflated, O’Shea said, with some pundits betting the figure is as high as 85 million. Amazon itself has never provided a number, other than to say it is in the tens of millions.
Amazon like many other tech companies seems to have a different set of standards when It comes to other wall street stocks. Investors tend to focus just on the revenue growth of these tech companies even when the rest of the balance sheet sucks. Amazon currently is at a P/E ratio of 247 vs Walmart's 19. That means Amazon stock is valued at 247 times it's earning which is screaming the bubble is about to burst but investors don't seem to care these days.
I think that mainly has to do with how the stock market is being rigged by the central banks. You can throw fundamentals of a company's balance sheet out the window if you know the Federal Reverse is behind the scene buying up stocks and bonds to keep the markets propped up.
I like how this guy from Moody's put things into perspective for people because we tend to just hear all the hype about these tech companies and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these positive stories we see in the media about them are just a bunch of ghost writers being paid by these companies.
As you can see from the chart below Whole Foods isn't even close to being a contender to Walmart but the media will tell you otherwise.
Amazon sells a bunch of shit but you can see from the chart that they made dick for profits. Most of their money has come from their overly valued stock.
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-is-actually-the-weakest-of-the-big-us-retailers-2017-08-30