Amazon's Whole Foods Deal Is Supporting This Little-Known Company

Blue Apron Holdings Inc APRN, a home delivery meal kit company, is off to a rough start after its IPO debut in late June. The stock opened for trading at $10 per share on June 29.

Since then the stock has seen continued downward pressure as Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN could leverage its proposed acquisition of Whole Foods Market, Inc. WFM and flex its much bigger muscles to push its way into the home delivery meal kit space.

In fact, Blue Apron's stock was trading lower by more than 4 percent Monday morning after The Street reported that Amazon filed for a trademark application concerning "prepared food kits composed of meat, poultry, fish, seafood, fruit and/or and [sic] vegetables...ready for cooking and assembly as a meal."

Amazon Helping This Little Known Stock

Meanwhile, Amazon's proposed acquisition of Whole Foods helped triple the value of IMPINJ Inc PI, a provider of readers and gateways that enable wireless connectivity and software that delivers Item Intelligence from endpoint reads.

Neither Amazon nor Impinj confirmed with Bloomberg if they already have a business relationship, but some analysts think they do. Brad Erickson, an analyst with KeBanc Capital Markets told Bloomberg that Amazon Go most likely uses technology similar to what Impinj offers "in some capacity" and his best guess would be that Impinj is involved.

Meanwhile, Impinj CEO Chris Diorio told Bloomberg the company is focusing on the "truly astronomical" food market. Based on the stock's 19 percent return since the Amazon-Whole Foods deal was announced, investors are speculating that if Amazon and Impinj hold a relationship today then it will likely be expanded over the years, especially after Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods closes.

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