Apple, Watch Your Market Cap — Amazon Is Coming

Apple has long been in the lead to become the first $1 trillion company based on its stock market value, but Amazon, the nation’s leading eCommerce player, is closing in on the iPhone maker.

According to news from Bloomberg, for several years, Apple has been the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, but it has yet to surpass the $1 trillion mark. Apple was within $50 billion of it in early June, noted Bloomberg.

At the same time, however, Amazon has been gaining steam. At the start of 2018, Bloomberg said Apple’s stock market value was 50 percent larger than Amazon’s, but now the gap is closer to 10 percent. As of stock market close on Friday (June 29), the spread between the two companies’ market caps sat around $85 billion. While the gap is rather large, Bloomberg said it’s not impossible for Amazon to close in on the $1 trillion mark if its stock keeps moving higher.

While no one is predicting Amazon or Apple will top $1 trillion any time soon, for Amazon at least, a lot could go wrong that could prevent it from ever hitting that milestone. For starters, Bloomberg pointed out that Amazon is trading at greater than 46 times its cash from operations during the past 12 months, while Apple is trading at about 11 times its cash from operations in the same time period. If Amazon makes any missteps or if the company’s business model prompts investor concern, it could hurt the company’s valuation and bring down its market value.

Most recently, Amazon purchased PillPack, the online pharmacy operator, to give it a foothold in the healthcare market. And while that may mark a change in the company’s strategy, it’s not one that is currently being negatively received by Wall Street or investors.

In a press release, Amazon said it was drawn to the online pharmacy company because of its positive impact on patients’ lives. PillPack delivers medications in pre-sorted packaging, coordinates refills and renewals and ensures shipments are sent on time.

“PillPack’s visionary team has a combination of deep pharmacy experience and a focus on technology,” said Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer Jeff Wilke in a press release. “PillPack is meaningfully improving its customers’ lives, and we want to help them continue making it easy for people to save time, simplify their lives and feel healthier. We’re excited to see what we can do together on behalf of customers over time.”