Amazon.com (AMZN) Takes Martha Stewart's Store From eBay, Stock Jumps
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Amazon.com (AMZN) - Get Report shares are taking off, up 2.06% to $656.55 on Wednesday, as Martha Stewart is taking her American Made store from eBay (EBAY) to the e-commerce giant's Handmade marketplace.
Amazon.com in October launched Handmade, its arts-and-crafts bazaar online that competes with Brooklyn-based Etsy (ETSY), which sells handmade goods.
Introduced in 2013, American Made was supposed to be eBay's answer to Etsy, but both eBay and Stewart announced that they will go their separate ways, the New York Times reports.
Amazon.com has instead taken away the spotlight as American Made goes live starting today.
"It [Amazon.com] is a much bigger audience," Stewart said. "It's the powerhouse retailer online in the United States. It's a step in the right direction, I think, to showcase the vast number of entrepreneurial small companies emerging in the United States."
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates AMAZON.COM INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
We rate AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its compelling growth in net income, robust revenue growth and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we find that the company's return on equity has been disappointing.
Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:
- The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has greatly exceeded that of the S&P 500, but is less than that of the Internet & Catalog Retail industry average. The net income increased by 118.1% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from -$437.00 million to $79.00 million.
- AMZN's revenue growth trails the industry average of 38.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 23.2%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
- AMAZON.COM INC reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, AMAZON.COM INC swung to a loss, reporting -$0.54 versus $0.58 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.92 versus -$0.54).
- Powered by its strong earnings growth of 117.89% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 113.66% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Looking ahead, however, we cannot assume that the stock's past performance is going to drive future results. Quite to the contrary, its sharp appreciation over the last year is one of the factors that should prompt investors to seek better opportunities elsewhere.
- The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Internet & Catalog Retail industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, AMAZON.COM INC underperformed against that of the industry average and is significantly less than that of the S&P 500.
- You can view the full analysis from the report here: AMZN