Piper's Gene Munster Defends Amazon: 'Investors Misinterpreting ChannelAdvisor's Data'
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) sold off Tuesday as Prime Day was underway. The stock saw a sharp downturn around 1:42 p.m. ET after it was reported ChannelAdvisor said Prime Day sales were flat year over year.
"We believe investors are mis-interpreting ChannelAdvisor's reported data on Prime Day," Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster said in a mid-day note. "ChannelAdvisor has a crystal ball into the sub-segment of Amazon volume it conducts, but we believe it provides a limited read on overall trends."
The analyst laid out three "core" reasons to support this thesis:
- 1) ChannelAdvisor works with only a subset of Amazon sellers and likely isn't capturing the full extent of brands onboarding for Prime Day 2016.
- 2) ChannelAdvisor reports same-store sales trends and, given Prime Day sellers have more than doubled year-over-year, same-store sales metrics should face headwinds.
- 3) Amazon appears have reorganized the deal flow/structure of Prime Day.
"With Prime Day members up 40-50% y/y since last Prime Day, better press coverage, and much stronger brand/merchant engagement, we believe Prime Day will deliver 37%+ unit growth vs. 2015," the note concluded.
The firm maintained an Overweight rating on the stock.
Shares traded recently at $747.32, down about 0.9 percent or $6.60 per share on the day.
Latest Ratings for AMZN
Date | Firm | Action | From | To |
---|---|---|---|---|
Feb 2021 | Citigroup | Maintains | Buy | |
Feb 2021 | UBS | Maintains | Buy | |
Feb 2021 | Benchmark | Maintains | Buy |
View More Analyst Ratings for AMZN
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