14 August 2018•Update: 14 August 2018
By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
Shares of Amazon hit an all-time high Monday as the company nears a market value of $1 trillion.
Amazon stock rose to a record $1,922.88 in the morning and closed the day at $1,896.20, a 0.52 percent increase from Friday’s close.
The online retailer has the second-highest market value in the world at $914.7 billion. Only Apple, which became the first company in history to be worth more than $1 trillion, boasts a higher market capitalization.
Amazon stock would only have to grow about another 9 percent for the company to be worth $1 trillion.
Wall Street has pushed Amazon stock toward new heights throughout 2018 – the stock has broken new records every month since May.
One year ago, shares of Amazon closed at $983.30.
In July, Amazon posted its earnings for the second quarter of 2018 and revealed that net income had reached $2.5 billion, roughly 12 times the income Amazon earned during the same period of 2017.
On Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson said in a note to clients that he expects Amazon’s online advertising business to become one of the company’s most profitable divisions. In fact, Olson said he believes the ad business will soon be better than the company’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS).
"While the Street has been focusing on the trajectory of core retail, growth of AWS, and new categories such as grocery and pharma, Amazon's advertising business has been quietly growing into a massive driver of current and future profitability," Olson wrote. "By 2021, we believe it is likely that advertising operating income will exceed AWS.”
Amazon’s good fortune on Wall Street has powered the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, into becoming the richest man in history. Last month, Forbes estimated that Bezos’ wealth topped $150 billion.
