Jim Cramer Says Amazon and Alphabet Are Cheap. Their Cash Flows Complicate the Case
π Jim Cramer argues Amazon and Alphabet are undervalued as investors favor other AI winners, with his charitable trust holding both stocks.
π° Amazon reported second-quarter AWS sales of $42.2 billion (up 37%) and operating income climbing to $16.6 billion from $10.2 billion.
π Amazon's trailing twelve-month free cash flow was negative $7.6 billion as $169 billion in capex nearly matched $161.4 billion in operating cash flow.
βοΈ Alphabet saw Google Cloud revenue rise 82% to $24.8 billion while companywide operating income increased 30%.
βοΈ Alphabet's quarterly capital expenditure of $44.9 billion exceeded its operating cash flow of $39.1 billion, complicating the valuation case.
π Funds added exposure to Amazon and Alphabet before Cramer's call, with Fisher Asset Management increasing positions in both stocks.
β οΈ Analysts warn that treating Alphabet's $98 billion in unrealized equity-investment gains as ordinary earnings would exaggerate its apparent cheapness.
π Amazon's short interest stood at 95.3 million shares (0.97% of float) with 2.3 days to cover as of August 14.
π The investment thesis for both companies relies on future cash generation justifying current heavy infrastructure outlays.
π Insider Monkey tracks positioning data showing 369 Amazon holders and 275 Alphabet holders at June 30 versus March 31.
- Amazon reported second-quarter AWS sales of $42.2 billion, representing a 37% increase year-over-year.
- AWS operating income climbed significantly to $16.6 billion from $10.2 billion in the prior period.
- Retail and advertising businesses provide additional revenue streams beyond core cloud infrastructure rental.
- Fisher Asset Management increased Amazon shares by approximately 2.3% to a total of 34,978,432 shares.
- Trailing twelve-month free cash flow was negative $7.6 billion as property-and-equipment purchases reached $169 billion.
- The June-quarter filing shows that heavy infrastructure investment is consuming nearly all operating cash flow.
- Roughly $50.5 billion of upward adjustments to Amazon's Anthropic nonvoting preferred stock were included in the quarter.
- Investors must distinguish between earnings lifted by investment gains and actual cash available for distribution.