Tag Archives: wmt

Will Amazon’s Transportation Fleet Bring Down Hammer On FedEx, UPS?

It’s an ambitious plan by Amazon ( AMZN ), to procure a fleet of 40 airline freighters and lessen its dependence on FedEx ( FDX ) and United Parcel Service ( UPS ). The 40 aircraft that Amazon plans to have fully operational by 2018 will enable it to bring as much as 30% of its current delivery volume in-house, according to a research report Monday by Moody’s Investors Service analyst Jonathan Root. In terms of short- and medium-haul aircraft, Amazon’s fleet would be 21% the size of UPS’ and 14% the size of FedEx’s, says Root. In terms of payload capacity, Amazon’s fleet would be 26% the size of UPS’ and 17% of FedEx’s, excluding their largest freighters that fly mostly long-haul routes for those companies, Root wrote. “As significant as that sounds, the business that UPS and FedEx will lose may not be as bad as it sounds,” Root wrote. “Revenue and average daily volumes at UPS and FedEx will be hurt, but there’s plenty of opportunity for them to replace that lost business with growing volumes from higher-yielding customers” and growth in e-commerce. Root also says that Amazon is one of the least profitable customers for UPS and FedEx, because Amazon’s size enables it to negotiate considerable discounts. “The extent to which UPS and FedEx can offset volume declines from Amazon with new business from other customers will determine how beneficial or detrimental Amazon’s plan will be to the companies’ segment operating margins,” Root wrote. Amazon stock was down a fraction, near 700, in afternoon trading in the stock market today , after touching a record high above 722 on May 12. It’s an IBD Leaderboard stock. UPS stock was down a fraction, while FedEx was up a fraction. The threat would grow if other large retailers follow Amazon’s lead, which he says is possible. “We understand that Wal-Mart Stores ( WMT ) is investing to improve its e-commerce positioning by building eight e-commerce warehouses,” Root wrote. Wal-Mart already offers free shipping on orders of more than $50, and it might broadly offer an e-commerce membership that includes free shipping, as Amazon does with its Amazon Prime membership service. Still, it’s not clear how deeply Amazon will dive into transportation services. “We estimate that Amazon could build a competing U.S. ground network for between $8 billion and $15 billion,” Root wrote. “We believe the company has the financial capacity to continue adding fulfillment centers, pickup locations and local and regional delivery operations, it if chooses to do so.” More than that, Amazon could offer its delivery services to the many third-party sellers on its site. “Such an offering would be more problematic for UPS’ and FedEx’s longer-term financial performance,” Root wrote.

Amazon Looks Primed To Disrupt Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, Walgreens

A major expansion by Amazon.com ( AMZN ) into private-label goods, which could come this month, elevates its ability to further challenge legacy retailers across the board. Cowen analyst John Blackledge estimates Amazon will be the No. 2 player in the $425 billion consumable market, excluding food and beverage, surpassing  Walgreens Boots Alliance ( WBA ), CVS Health ( CVS ) and Target ( TGT ) but still lagging well behind market leader Wal-Mart ( WMT ). He defines consumables as four segments: personal care products, household products, baby products and pet products. Blackledge also estimates Amazon will be a top-10 player in the $785 billion food and beverage grocery market by 2019. “We are encouraged by Amazon’s growing footprint in this category, which we see as ripe for potential disruption, given younger demos increasingly purchasing grocery items via digital channels,” Blackledge wrote. The leader in the food and beverage category is Wal-Mart, followed by Kroger ( KR ), Albertsons/Safeway and Costco Wholesale ( COST ). Last week, the Wall Street Journal  cited people familiar with the matter as saying Amazon is set in the coming weeks to roll out new lines of private-label brands that will include its first broad push into perishable foods. According to the Private Label Manufacturers Association, sales of private-label store brands in the U.S. topped $118 billion in 2015, with supermarkets and drug chains accounting for over $70 billion of the total. In the grocery and consumables market, Blackledge says, Amazon’s growth has come at the expense of Wal-Mart, Target. Walgreens and CVS. Amazon’s key competitive advantage is its multiplatform approach with Amazon Prime, which includes same-day delivery for many goods, “all of which should lead to rising number of consumers skipping the trip to the local supercenter, drug store or grocery market,” he wrote. Amazon has sold private-label products since 2009, primarily under the AmazonBasics brand, though that effort has concentrated largely on consumer electronics. Amazon stock rose 0.6% to 702.80 in the stock market today . Amazon stock hit an all-time high of 722.45 on May 12. It carries a strong IBD Composite Rating of 94, putting it among the top 6% of all stocks on key metrics such as revenue growth. Walgreens climbed 1.3% but CVS fell 1.5%. Target climbed 2.4%. Wal-Mart advanced 1%, hitting a nine-month high intraday, after spiking nearly 10% Thursday on strong earnings and same-store sales.

Apple Pay Rival MCX, Visa Loom At PayPal Analyst Day

Delays and staff cuts at Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a mobile payments consortium, will likely boost Apple Pay, while PayPal ( PYPL ) management’s view on MCX’s woes should be a hot topic at PayPal’s analyst day on Wednesday. MCX said Tuesday it will cut 30 jobs and again delay the launch of its mobile app , a potential rival of  Apple ( AAPL ) Pay and others. MCX has been courting retailers, Apple,  Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google, PayPal, Samsung, Visa ( V ) and others in the mobile payments space.  Wal-Mart ( WMT ) has been MCX’s main backer. PayPal will be hosting its first analyst day following its 2015 spinoff from eBay ( EBAY ) last year. The event will be held in San Jose, Calif. PayPal recently launched its redesigned mobile app, which works on Apple iPhones and Android-based devices, in 145 countries. While Apple and MCX were rivals, PayPal has aimed to partner with different players in mobile payments. PayPal in March 2015 acquired Paydiant, which had close ties to MCX and retailers. MCX had aimed to reduce the clout of credit card firms in the nascent mobile payments business, analysts say. Prior to the latest MCX announcement, Citigroup analyst Ashwin Shirvaikar said in a research report that PayPal’s relationship with Visa and MasterCard ( MA ) was one area of interest heading into its analyst day. At Jefferies, analyst Jason Kupferberg was also hoping for an update on Visa. “PayPal’s relationship with Visa remains a topic of interest for the Street, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there is limited commentary at the analyst day on this topic, given ongoing negotiations,” Kupferberg wrote in a report. Prior to the eBay spinoff, PayPal acquired Braintree, a mobile payment service, and Venmo, a hybrid mobile payment app and social network for millennials. Daniel Perlin, an analyst at RBC Capital, expects mobile to be a big theme at PayPal’s analyst day. “We believe management will outline its plans to shift from its legacy e-commerce platform into a leading mobile-first platform for payments, with its Braintree asset being front and center.”