Diamonds and Dogs

4/27/18

Amazon (AMZN) catching Apple. Amazon is up 4% to a new all-time high following flow out earnings. Sales rose 42% to $51 billion. Operating income rose 92% while operating cash flow rose to 4% to $18.2 billion. Amazon raised its second quarter operating income and will increase prime membership by 20% to $119 a year. Amazon recently announced they have 100 million in Prime members so the 20% pay hike will generate another $2 billion in sales. Plenty of upgrades for Amazon with price targets of $1800, $1900, $2020 and $2200. Another 7% stock appreciation and Amazon will catch Apple for largest US market cap.

Most oil company are performing well, but Exxon Mobil (XOM) is taking a hit down 3% after missing estimates as revenues rose 2.5% to $68.21 billion. Cash flow from operations and asset sales was $10 billion, including proceeds associated with asset sales of $1.4 billion. The increased commodity prices, coupled with a focus on operating efficiently and strengthening our portfolio, resulted in the higher earnings and the highest quarterly cash flow from operations and asset sales since 2014. Exxon hit raise their dividend 6% bringing the yield up to 4%. That should provide limited downside going forward.