Manning & Napier Advisors Inc., an investment firm headquartered in New York that was founded in April 1970, added 71,580 shares of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN, Financial) to its portfolio during the fourth quarter.
The trade had a 0.35% impact on Manning & Napier's portfolio. It now owns 541,938 shares.
Amazon.com has a market cap of $400.31 billion, a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 192.35, an enterprise value of $390.17 billion and a price-book (P/B) ratio of 22.49.
Amazon.com is headquartered in Seattle, and it completed its initial public offering (IPO) in May 1997. It was founded by Jeff Bezos, a relentless, vigilant leader, who purchased the URL relentless.com; if you type that into your web browser, you will be directed to Amazon.com.
Amazon.com is one of the world’s largest e-commerce Web sites. It sells millions of products worldwide, and it also manufactures its own electronic products including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TVs and Echo.
The company also offers Amazon Prime, an annual membership program that includes unlimited free shipping on millions of items, access to unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes and other benefits.
According to GuruFocus, Amazon.com has a 7 of 10 financial strength rating with a cash-debt ratio of 2.24, an equity-asset ratio of 0.25 and a Piotroski F-Score of 6, which indicates the company’s financial situation is typical for a stable company.
Amazon.com has an 8 of 10 profitability and growth rating with an operating margin of 3.16%, a net margin of 1.64%, a return on equity (ROE) of 14.05%, three-year revenue growth of 18.50%, three-year EBITDA growth of 41.30% and a return on capital (ROC) of 17.48%.
Defensive investors Manning & Napier may have decided to add to their position for the following reasons.
- The company has excellent financial results over the past 10 years. Amazon.com's revenue growth has increased by 28.60%, its EBITDA has increased by 26.10%, its free cash flow has grown by 15.90%, and its book value has grown by 44.20% over the previous 10 years.
- Bezos has shown excellent leadership with the ability to execute his business plans and expand Amazon.com's operations globally.
- Amazon.com has a five-star predictability rating according to GuruFocus. Based on backtesting results, stocks with a 5-star predictability rating produce, on average, a 12.1% yearly return over a 10-year sample size.
- Amazon.com has multiple streams of income and has established itself as one of the largest e-commerce websites in the world.
- Amazon.com has excellent customer service.
Disclosure: The author does not own any shares of this company.
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