Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN, Financial), the world’s largest retailer, declined in the first quarter despite reporting strong revenue growth likely due to retail margins being lower than anticipated. Amazon has responded by instituting substantial fulfillment and supply chain fee increases for merchants on the platform. We estimate that these fee increases should start to alleviate the recent pressure on retail margins in the upcoming quarters. Amazon’s other major business segment, Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to gain traction with enterprise customers, and over time, we expect AWS to be the larger contributor to value creation for the company.
From Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund first quarter commentary 2016.
