Financial Analysis of Amazon.comQ1 - 9. Brief description of the company:Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos opened the virtual doors of the Amazon.com online store in July 1995. The company was incorporated in 1994 in Washington state and reincorporated in 1996 in Delaware. The Company's principal corporate offices are located in Seattle, Washington. Amazon.com completed its initial public offering in May 1997, and its common stock is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol AMZN. Amazon.com's fiscal year is based on the calendar year, and the last day of the fiscal year is December 31st. The closing stock sales price for February 1, 2006 was $43.98. Amazon has never declared or paid cash dividends on its common stock. Amazon.com Inc. operates websites that sell various products and services, which primarily include clothing, shoes, and accessories; health and personal care; baby care products; books; camera and photography; and consumer electronics. The company and other sellers also offer various new, refurbished, and used items in categories such as health and personal care, jewelry and watches, gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, digital versatile discs, electronics and office, toys and children, home and garden. These products are purchased by distributors, publishers and manufacturers. The company and its affiliates operate seven retail websites: www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www .amazon.ca and www.joyo.com. It also operates www.a9.com and www.alexa.com which allow search and browsing, and www.imdb.com, a movie database website. As mentioned above, Jeffery P. Bezons is the president and CEO... ... middle of paper ......g losses for several years and has not paid any dividends to its shareholders to date. Additionally, stock price data for the first quarter of 2006 shows that Amazon lost more than $10 in its stock price (a net hit to shareholders who do not receive dividends) during the quarter (see chart below). Furthermore, the bleak picture of net cash flows to the company almost brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. The intercompany industry data also discourages investors from putting their money into Amazon.com. The company ranks 15th (out of a total of 119 industries) in terms of price-to-capital ratio, 29th in terms of EPS growth and long-term (5-year) growth rate, and 39th in terms of revenue growth. (Source: www.finance.yahoo.com). Amazon.com's industry ranking directs potential investors to other profitable companies in the same industry. Figure 1: Share price performance