Amazon shares rose 0.6 percent on Thursday, reaching an all-time high. While it still has a ways to go, the e-commerce giant is getting closer to joining Apple inhitting a $1 trillion market cap. Amazon surpassed $900 billion in market value in July.
That’s good news for investors, especially those who bought stock in Amazon early on. If you had invested $1,000 in the tech company in early August 2008, your initial outlay would be worth more than $23,581.20 as of August 9, 2018, according to CNBC calculations, or over 23 times as much.
While Amazon’s stock has performed well, any individual stock can over- or under-perform and past returns do not predict future results. That’s perhaps why Warren Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, opted not to invest in Amazon when he had the chance.
At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in May 2017, the self-made billionaire said he didn’t appreciate the value of tech stocks at first: “I was too dumb to realize. I did not think [Bezos] could succeed on the scale he has.” Citing Amazon’s massive success, Buffett went on to say he “really underestimated the brilliance” of Amazon’s execution and called Bezos “the most remarkable business person of our age.”
Amazon’s Prime service, which increased its price from $99 a year to $119 in May 2018, now reaches 100 million members worldwide, founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is now more than $130 billion, announced in his annual letter to shareholders.
“Amazon’s share in its key markets continues to expand,” Justin Post of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, previously wrote in a note to clients. It’s “success is supported by strong fulfillment infrastructure and Prime lock-in.”
If you’re looking to invest in the next Amazon or considering putting some money in the stock market, experienced investors like Buffett, Mark Cuban and Tony Robbins suggest you start carefully.
Begin with index funds, they say, which hold every stock in an index, offer low turnover rates, attendant fees and tax bills, and fluctuate with the market to eliminate the risk of picking individual stocks.
This is an updated version of a previously published stor y.
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Video by Andrea Kramar
