Amazon has come under fire lately from workers in warehouses concerned about their safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. But this controversy isn’t making investors nervous. Not at all.
In fact, shares of Amazon have surged about 30% this year and finished at a new all-time closing high of $2,410.22 on Friday.
The Jeff Bezos-led company is now worth $1.2 trillion — about the same as Apple and trailing only cloud rival Microsoft in the battle for the most valuable publicly traded firm in the United States.
According to CNN, Amazon — along with fellow retail leader Walmart — is expected to be a big winner as many Americans shelter in place and order nearly everything they need online.
“While its global supply chain and delivery/fulfillment services could be somewhat hobbled by the Covid-19 disruption, Amazon should see an e-commerce surge on increased online shopping amid in-home confinement,” said CFRA analyst Tuna Amobi in a report Friday.
The company is also benefiting from some of the same stay-at-home trends that are boosting streaming king Netflix. Amazon Prime subscribers can also binge watch programs on the company’s Prime Instant Video service.
All of this bodes well for Amazon as it gets ready to report its first quarter earnings on April 30. Analysts expect that the company will report a more than 20% increase in sales — to a whopping $73 billion.
