Prime Day Sends Amazon.com (AMZN) Stock to All-Time High
Prime Day 2018 is officially over, and Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) has reported some of the preliminary sales numbers investors have been waiting for. Despite concerns over reports of glitches, analysts say this year's Prime Day was a huge success for Amazon and its investors.
According to Amazon, the company sold more than 100 million products during the 36-hour Prime Day period, more than last year's Prime Day, Cyber Monday or Black Friday.
The Instant Pot 6 Qt. 7-in-1 Multi Use, 23 and Me DNA Tests and LifeStraw Personal Water Filters were the three best-selling Prime Day products in the U.S. this year. Amazon says its best-selling home-grown products were the Fire TV Stick and the Echo Dot.
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This year's Prime Day marked the first time Prime members could receive special Prime Day savings at Whole Foods, and Amazon said organic strawberries were the best-selling Whole Foods product.
In addition to the tremendous Prime Day revenue inflow, AMZN said more new Prime members signed up on July 16 than any other day in history.
Prime Day has gotten so big that even Amazon's competitors are getting in on the action. Target Corp. ( TGT) says July 17 was its best day for online sales so far in 2018. Walmart ( WMT) and Macy's ( M) also got in on the action with their own Prime Day sales.
It appears as if glitches on Amazon's website reported on Monday were resolved and had limited impact on overall sales. Amazon did not disclose its total sales numbers for the 36-hour event, but analysts had projected Prime Day revenue of at least $3.6 billion.
Bank of America analyst Justin Post says Amazon hit a home run with this year's event.
"Amazon's Prime Day again was an important branding event, driver of Prime customer additions, and helped promote sales of Amazon hardware," Post says.
Amazon did not update its Prime membership count, but the company reported 100 million prime members for the first time back in April.
"Overall, we do not think Prime Day will meaningfully change Amazon's 3Q top-line growth trends (some sales likely borrowed from future days, plus heavy discounting), but the success of the day highlights the growing importance of Prime and penetration of Prime membership," Post says.
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Bank of America has a "buy" rating and $1,840 price target for AMZN stock.
Wayne Duggan is a freelance investment strategy reporter with a focus on energy and emerging market stocks. He has a degree in brain and cognitive sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and specializes in the psychological challenges of investing. He is a senior financial market reporter for Benzinga and has contributed financial market analysis to Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha and InvestorPlace. He is also the author of the book "Beating Wall Street With Common Sense," which focuses on the practical strategies he has used to outperform the stock market. You can follow him on Twitter @DugganSense, check out his latest content at tradingcommonsense.com or email him at wpd@tradingcommonsense.com.
