Amazon Stock Costs More Than the Market. I’d Still Buy It for the Next 5 Years. – AOL

Key Points

• Amazon’s operating income more than tripled from 2020 to 2025.

• Amazon’s ad revenue climbed 26% in the second quarter from a year earlier.

• Over the long run, the S&P 500 has averaged about a 10% annual return, counting dividends.

Shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) leaped about 5% on Monday. Still, the stock trades near $262 as I write, about 8% off its record close of $284.02 on Aug. 3.

For those buying today, though, the more helpful yardstick is an S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) index fund. From 1928 through 2025, the index compounded at about 10% a year with dividends reinvested, according to historical data gathered by New York University professor Aswath Damodaran. Any one stock needs to beat that to be worth the added risk.

Missed AI’s “Act 1”? Act 2 Could Be 15x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn’t buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we’re only at the end of “Act 1″—the R&D phase. “Act 2” is the global rollout. Continue »

I…