Amazon Revenues and Profits 1995 To 2015

Amazon generated $511 thousand of revenues during 1995 and had a net loss of $303 thousand. During 2015, Amazon generated $107 billion of revenues and had a net profit of $596 million. Net profit margins were very negative during first 7-8 years. Then, they turned positive. Net profits margins have been nearly flat for the last four years.

Walmart Revenues and Profits 1995 To 2015

Walmart generated $89 billion of revenues during 1995 and had a net profit of $2.7 billion. During 2015, Walmart generated $482 billion of revenues and had a net profit of $14.7 billion. Net profit margins for Walmart have remained consistent. They have been in the range of 3.0-3.6% for the last 21 years.

Amazon vs Walmart – Comparing Revenues and Profits

During 2015, Amazon generated a total revenues of $107 billion. Of these revenues, Amazon generated $99 billion revenues from online retailing business and the remaining $8 billion from Amazon Web Services (AWS) business. During 2015, Walmart generated a total of $482 billion revenues.

During the past 21 years, from 1995 to 2015, Amazon has generated a combined net profit of $2.56 billion. This means that if we add Amazon net profits and losses for all the years from 1995 to 2015, the total would be $2.56 billion. In contrast, Walmart generated $14.69 billion in 2015 alone. So, Walmart generated nearly six-times more net profit in 2015 than what Amazon could generate during the last 21 years.

Amazon vs Walmart – Comparing Stock Performance

If you would have purchased Walmart stocks 10 years back, you wouldn’t have gained much today. However, if you would have purchased Amazon stocks 10 years back, the amount would have increased by nearly 2000%. We can see that in the following stock performance comparison chart from Google Finance.

Amazon vs Walmart – Comparing Market Cap

Amazon stock surged after its Q2’15 earnings announcement on July 23, 2015. On July 24, 2015, Amazon crossed Walmart to become the biggest retailer by market value. It has been nearly a year since that news. The gap in the market cap of Amazon and Walmart has continued to increase. As on July 5, 2016, Amazon market cap was $344 billion, whereas, Walmart market cap was $228 billion. The following chart compares the market cap of Amazon and Walmart over the last 10 years. Amazon market cap seems to be going higher and higher.

Amazon Walmart Market Cap 2006-2016

Why do investors value Amazon more than Walmart? There are several arguments given by investors. First, Amazon overall revenue growth is much higher than Walmart right now. Second, AWS business has a huge growth potential because cloud computing is the future of IT and Amazon is one of the dominant player in that world. Third, we should compare what Amazon has achieved in its first 21 years and what Walmart achieved in its first 21 years. Now, imagine what Amazon can achieve over next 20 years and compare it with what Walmart can achieve over next 20 years or what it achieved in its first 40 years.

What is your opinion?



