While the technology industry has been in a slump, Amazon, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) has been on a slide. It opened this year with its stock value losing about 50% from where it began in 2022. On top of that, the CEO has said they are going to cut 18,000 jobs, joining them with other tech giants in an effort to trim the fat incurred over the pandemic. But from what we can tell, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will not be subjected to this purge. This is not surprising as this segment has been a stellar performer and could result in over 20% of Amazon’s total revenue if it continues its growth path. Overall, with the year-over-year track record of AWS and the significant reduction in its cost structure, it is reasonable to predict that Amazon should bounce back in 2023.
Comps: Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT)
If we look at these S&P 500 headliners, Amazon stock performed worse in 2022 than either of these two and in an effort to cut costs, eliminated 1% of its workforce. However, Amazon’s quarterly revenue growth year over year is superior to Alphabet and Microsoft by a significant margin. While Amazon does not hold the earnings per share and price-to-earnings values that Alphabet and Microsoft are, their revenue growth is unmatched, and they have substantially reduced their overhead to help propel themselves through this year.