Amazon Stores, Facebook VR Justify Gene Munster's Bullishness

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN is dabbling in everything from drones to voice activation, but that’s not necessarily what impresses the bullish Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures.

“What is most puzzling is its bookstores,” Munster said on Benzinga’s PreMarket Prep. “I think what’s more exciting on its brick-and-mortar [business] is its Amazon Go stores.”

The company is testing its first computer-run depot in Seattle to allow members to walk out with products charged automatically to their accounts. Amazon’s focus appears a bit backwards in an age when most retail stores are shifting business online, but Munster considers management to be covering its bases.

“I can see that in the next 50 years, the amount that’s bought online will go from about 15 percent today to about 70 percent,” he said. “There will still be about 30 percent or so that will be bought with brick and mortar, and I think Amazon does want to play, and I think that’s their Go-store play.”

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The Social Network

Munster expressed similar optimism about the fate of Facebook Inc FB, which will release its second-quarter earnings Wednesday.

“There’s probably not a lot it could say to get people to change their positive view on this,” he said, adding that he foresees no surprises in the upcoming report.

He will watch for Facebook Stories updates and readthrough on Snap, but he maintains optimism about the stock bolstered by shareholder interest in Instagram and Whatsapp, which the company only recently moved to monetize, and Facebook’s interest in virtual reality.

“It’s more about the setup and the innovation that Facebook is doing over the next two to five years versus the March quarter,” Munster said.