How To Buy Amazon Shares
The easiest way to buy Amazon shares directly is through a brokerage account, which you would have to open if you don’t have one already.
Examples of popular brokerage platforms include:
- Vanguard
Amazon shares trade with the ticker symbol AMZN on the NASDAQ exchange.
You can purchase the stock using either a market order or a limit order.
Amazon’s Environmental Social And Governance Track Record
Environmental, social and governance criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Amazon.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
Amazon’s total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 33.42
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Amazon’s overall score of 33.42 is nothing to write home about landing it in it in the 52nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Amazon is exposed to within the areas of “environmental” , “social” , and “governance” .
Amazon’s environmental score
Environmental score: 10.63/100
Amazon’s environmental score of 10.63 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Amazon is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
Amazon’s social score
Social score: 18.52/100
Amazon’s social score of 18.52 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Amazon is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.
Amazon’s governance score
Governance score: 12.78/100
Amazon’s controversy score
Controversy score: 3/5
The Amazon Mavens Take
We continue to hold the same opinion on Amazon stock that we did a few weeks ago. First, concerns over e-commerce results may have been a bit too short-sighted. The opportunity to buy into Amazons long-term growth story while the stock is off its historical peak is still on the table.
Second, Amazons trailing P/E in the 60s, while certainly not depressed in absolute terms, remains near the lows relative to historical levels. Look forward, and the 2025 earnings multiple of only around 20 times suggests that AMZN has plenty of room to grow into its valuations.
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Is Amazon Stock A Buy Right Now
Following the sharp plunge after its earnings report, Amazon stock is down in the dumps and not a buy. While it climbed back above its 200-day line, this is just the first step toward a recovery. So far, no base is appearing.
If you’re interested in buying large-cap stocks, in these articles you’ll find technical analysis of leading large caps to see if they are in or near a proper buy zone.
You’ll also find alerts to warning signs and sell signals that show when to take your profits or cut short any losses. And, you’ll discover if the current stock market trend is conducive to buying stocks, or if it’s an environment where you want to take defensive action and sell.
Please follow Brian Deagon on Twitter at for more on tech stocks, analysis and financial markets.
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Is Buying Amazon Stock The Right Move For You
Anytime youre evaluating a stock, you need to decide whether its the right investment decision for you and your personal finance goals. One of the hazards of investing in individual stocks is that you could end up losing out if that company declares bankruptcy or goes out of business due to market volatility. Although its hard to imagine such a fate for Amazon, its still a possibility.
Another thing to take into account is that because Amazon had such an amazing run-up in stock price, getting in now isnt likely to provide you similarly dramatic returns. Many people who have made a lot of money picking individual stocks did so because they bought shares early on and benefited from the big gain in value. The time is past where you can buy Amazon for less than a few dollars per share and reap the big gains. However, you might still be able to meet your portfolio growth goals even when you buy fractional shares of Amazon.
If your goal is income investing, Amazon probably wont work for you. Amazon has never paid a cash dividend . It doesnt appear that Amazon is likely to adopt a dividend in the near future, though the company could decide to at some point. For the most part, Amazon stock is likely to work best for those who are looking for growth in their portfolios and believe Amazon still has room to increase in stock price.
Just remember that with investing, theres always the risk of loss, no matter what you choose to invest in.
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Buying Shares Of Amazon Stock
The final step, if youre ready, is to make the leap and buy Amazons stock! Nowadays, if youre getting started investing you dont need a financial advisor. There are plenty of brokerage accounts that are easy to set up and offer extremely cheap trading and no account minimums.
If youre a newer investor, one of the best brokerage options is Robinhood because theyre really easy to use and allow you to invest in fractional shares of Amazon .
There has literally never been a better time to start investing since brokerages have been slashing fees, introducing fractional shares, and doing everything they can to gain the business of new investors.
Therefore, its not a bad idea to look into different brokerage options before opening your account. But make sure to keep the following in mind
Additional Investing Resources:
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What You Need To Know About Amazon Stock
When you ask, How much is Amazon stock? its important to put it into perspective. The reality is that the stock prices of all companies change on a daily basis sometimes minute-to-minute. No matter how you invest money or what you invest in, there’s a possibility you can lose more than you invest.
However, over time, Amazon stock has seen a steady rise. On May 16, 1997, the day after Amazons stock first went public at a price of $1.50 per share after being adjusted for stock splits, Amazon shares were selling for $1.73 each. Over time, Amazon stock grew in value following that initial public offering . Although Amazon took a hit during the stock market crash 10 years ago, the overall trend has been positive. Indeed, today Amazon stock sells for nearly $3,000 per share on the Nasdaq.
In 2019, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffetts company, bought nearly $1 billion of Amazon stock. More recently Amazon stock has benefited from the fact the coronavirus pandemic is encouraging many people to stay home and order items online. Some analysts think Amazon stock could see a 16% boost in value in 2020.
Amazons stock has benefitted so much from COVID-19 that Jeff Bezos, who owns a lot of stock in his own company, saw the biggest single-day increase in net worth on July 20, 2020, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Amazons share price jump that day added an estimated $13 billion to Jeff Bezos wealth.
Amazon Stock Dividend Information
Instead of paying dividends, high growth companies return value to shareholders in the form of increases in stock value and invest in acquisitions to sustain growth. Since its IPO in May 1997, Amazons stock value has increased more than 130,000 percent. In comparison, Apple stock has increased about 36,000 percent over the same period . Investors expect Amazon to create shareholder value from its recent $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods.
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Investing In Amazon Shares Final Thoughts
So, should you buy Amazon stock? Can Amazon continue to grow its Amazonian revenues while also expanding profit margins? Amazon is proving it can turn new business lines into profitable market leaders. The global stock market downturn may be an opportune time to buy Amazon shares. Another viable option is to buy Netflix stocks, which you can find out more about on this page.
When you are ready to buy stocks, we recommend doing so via a regulated online broker such as eToro if youre a UK customer, and Stash Invest for U.S. customers.
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The Latest From Analysts
About a half dozen reports have been issued on Amazon stock in the past week. Goldman Sachs Eric Sheridan has just initiated coverage on AMZN with a buy rating and price target of $4,250, representing 23% upside potential.
According to the analyst, the Seattle-based company should be a beneficiary of the tailwinds in the internet sector. In addition, the company has exposure to multiple long-term runways that can sustain 15%-plus growth while also producing margin expansion in the coming years.
Bank of Americas Justin Post went a few layers deeper and pointed out one key growth opportunity: the development of a POS system that would allow Amazon to compete with Shopify and others. The analyst stated the following:
We expect Amazon to offer a feature rich product with deep integration with Amazons marketplace, fulfilment, checkout, and payments processing capabilities. The opportunity is big, and Amazons existing customer relationships provide a foundation to help build adoption.
Also worth noting, Evercore ISIs Mark Mahaney bumped his target price by $500 to suggest juicy gains of 36% ahead. Mr. Mahaney was one of the few analysts to accurately predict Amazons struggles in Q2 before the company delivered results that, in fact, missed the mark.
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Is It The Right Time To Buy Amazon
Analysts expect Amazon’s revenue and earnings to rise 23% and 26%, respectively, for the full year. Next year, they expect its revenue to increase 18% with 25% earnings growth as its year-over-year growth stabilizes.
We should take those estimates with a grain of salt, but we’ve seen Amazon go through plenty of higher spending cycles in the past. Each time Amazon says it will ramp up its spending, it attracts some bears who claim it’s losing its momentum without considering that the company still leads the high-growth e-commerce and cloud infrastructure markets.
It’s generally a red flag when a market underdog boosts its spending to catch up to the market leaders, but it’s a sign of strength when a market leader like Amazon increases its spending to maintain its dominance. So as someone who started accumulating shares of Amazon six years ago, I’m not too worried about the company’s latest sales slowdown or its spending uptick at all.
After its latest pullback, Amazon’s stock trades at less than 50 times forward earnings and just three times next year’s sales. That’s a bargain compared to many other high-growth e-commerce and cloud stocks, and I believe Amazon’s stock could still head much higher over the next few years.
Tips To Become A Better Investor
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What The Analysts Say
According to Yahoo Finance, of 47 analysts who followed Amazon stock in July 2021, 15 rated it a strong buy, 28 rated it a buy, three rated it a hold, and one gave it a rating of underperform. None of the analysts recommended selling it. This gives Amazon stock an average rating of 1.7 on a scale of 1 to 5 .
The price of the stock as of July 30 is $3,327.59. This is lower than any of the analysts price targets, which range from $3,775 to $5,500.
How Much Amazon Stock Should You Buy
Once youve taken a close look at both the positive case and the negative case, the next step is to determine how much youre looking to invest in Amazon. If youre just getting started, its important not to put all your eggs in one basket. Nobel Prize-winning economist Harry Markowitz once quipped diversification is the only free lunch in investing. Ultimately, you want to build a portfolio of at least 10-15 high-quality companies.
Start by asking yourself the following question: How does Amazon fit in your portfolio?
Whats your current level of diversification? Do you have diverse holdings like mutual funds and/or exchange-traded funds in your individual retirement account , 401, or taxable trading account?
- If no: consider a low-cost ETF that tracks a stock index like the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- S& P 500 ETFs will have approximately 4% exposure to Amazon.
For many investors, several thousand dollars for a single share is too large a portion of their total dollars available to invest. However, many brokers offer fractional shares allowing investors to own a partial share of Amazon for as low as $1!
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What’s The Smallest Number Of Shares I Can Buy
Many people would say the smallest number of an investor can purchase is one, but the real answer is not quite as straightforward. Today, it is increasingly common for investors to purchase fractional shares, where as little as $1 can be applied to a stock buy order.
While there is no minimum order limit on the purchase of a publicly-traded company’s stock, many brokers in the past advised buying blocks of stock with a minimum value of $500 to $1,000. This quantity size is due to the fact that no matter what online or offline service an investor uses to purchase stock, there are brokerage fees and commissions on the trade. In most cases, one share would cost the same amount as $500 of the shares. But again, with many online brokers moving to commission-free trading, these considerations may no longer be as applicable.
Buying On The Open Market
When purchasing stock on the open market, an investor should open a trading or brokerage account with a financial institution, such as E*TRADE, Charles Schwab, or TD Ameritrade. Once the trading account is opened, it’s up to the investor how many stocks he/she wants to purchase at any one time. Before making any purchase decisions, an investor should do ample research on the various types of equity securities that are offered.
Although there may not be minimum limits on equity orders, brokers may require a minimum initial deposit to open a trading account.
Once an investor identifies a stock worth purchasing, an online trade should be executed using a brokerage account. There are two types of trades that can be made in this scenario, the , and the limit order. Stocks that trade in multiples of 100 shares are known as a round lot. For fewer than 100 shares, those orders are called odd lots.
If the investor makes a market order, they are choosing to purchase the stock at the current market price. If the investor makes a limit order, they are choosing to wait to purchase the stock until the price falls to a specific limit. While purchasing a single share isn’t advisable, if an investor would like to purchase one share, they should try to place a limit order for a greater chance of capital gains that offset the brokerage fees.
Buying a small number of shares may limit what stocks you can invest in, leaving you open to more risk.
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