Amazon.com Inc‘s AMZN lower-than-expected net sales for the second quarter and disappointing outlook weighed heavily on the company’s share price on Friday, and also on its founder Jeff Bezos‘ net worth. This slump was part of a larger financial hit that erased $134 billion from the wealth of the globe’s 500 richest individuals.
What Happened: Amazon shares closed down nearly 9% at $167.90 on Friday after the company reported second-quarter net sales of $148 billion, up 10% year-over-year, but missing a Street consensus estimate of $148.56 billion.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, this took Bezos’s net worth down by about $15.2 billion. However, he is still second on the index, overrun only by Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk with a net worth of about $226.9 billion. Bernard Arnault and family of LVMH trail closely behind Bezos with a total net worth of $182 billion.
The Nasdaq 100 Index also experienced a 2.4% drop, impacting the wealth of other tech billionaires such as Elon Musk and Oracle Corp.‘s Larry Ellison, who lost $6.6 billion and $4.4 billion respectively. The tech-centric index has been affected by potential Federal Reserve rate cuts and disappointing high-profile earnings, leading to a correction that has wiped out over $2 trillion in value in just over three weeks, as per Bloomberg.
Other tech billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page, also suffered losses of over $3 billion each as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. META and Alphabet GOOGL GOOG fell in New York trading. In total, tech tycoons saw $68 billion shaved off their fortunes, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.
The drop in net worth is not Bezos’ biggest one-day wipeout to date. Bezos’ net worth fell by $36 billion in a day on April 4, 2019, after his divorce settlement, the report added.
Why It Matters: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reiterated the company’s commitment to AI investments on Thursday, concerning investors who worry that this year’s AI-fueled gains are overdone or the market is too concentrated, Bloomberg noted.
The company also said that it expects cash capital expenditure to “meaningfully increase” in 2024 due to investment in technology infrastructure. For the second quarter, the company’s cash capital expenditure was $16.4 billion, significantly higher than the $10.4 billion in the corresponding quarter of last year.
Amazon also issued soft third-quarter guidance for net sales on Thursday in a range of $154 billion to $158.5 billion, below the consensus estimate.
Several analysts subsequently lowered their price target on the company’s shares including Pipe Sandler’s Thomas Champion and JPMorgan’s Doug Anmuth.
Price Action: Despite the slump on Friday, Amazon stock is up by nearly 12% year-to-date, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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