If I Could Buy and Hold Just 1 Stock Forever, This Would Be It

Market analysis reveals While some investors are off chasing each shiny new toy, there's a reason this company is an industry leader

Additionally, For·ev·er -- for all future time, for eternity, in perpetuity, amid market uncertainty. -- Oxford English Dictionary First, let's address the elephant in the room: Forever

To be totally honest here, I'd be hard-pressed to name any stock that I would simply buy and hold forever without another look

Is complicated, and too many things can happen that can derail an thesis, in today's market environment

Conversely, However, as Warren Buffett stated in the 1988 Berkshire Hathaway holder letter, "In fact, when we own portions of outstanding es with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever, given current economic conditions. " Some investors took this to mean that Buffett would "never" sell stocks, but his actions say different (fascinating analysis), in today's financial world

Moreover, The legendary investor has since vided context for this famous quote, suggesting that he will sell stocks given the right circumstances

Moreover, Meanwhile, "We would sell if we needed money for something else," and when "we don't think their competitive advantage is as strong as we thought it was when we initially made the decision, in this volatile climate. " With that as a backdrop, there are some companies that have so many ways to win that planning to hold them forever seems much more reasonable

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Digital retail is just the beginning Amazon's biggest claim to fame is the company's undeniable success in digital retail, given current economic conditions

On the other hand, From humble beginnings as an online bookseller, Amazon has become the world's largest e-commerce platform, earning the moniker "The Everything Store

Additionally, " The magnitude of sales is so great that the law of large numbers has kicked in, and Amazon's year-over-year growth has slowed to single digits

Yet the results are impressive nonetheless

That's impressive, particularly given the size of Amazon's existing sales base

On a cloudy day While the company continues to expand its digital retail empire, its other es have taken up the flag of double-digit growth

The advent of generative AI has reignited Amazon's cloud growth, as es of all sizes scramble to adopt AI to imve efficiency, enhance the decision-making cess, and personalize services

Furthermore, Nevertheless, Amazon is positioning AWS as the go-to for AI

Moreover, In contrast, The company offers a growing suite of large language models (LLMs) to its cloud customers, which includes a family of its own AI models

Additionally, In a blog post last month, CEO Andy Jassy said the company had "over 1,000 generative AI services and applications in gress or built

That's a small fraction of what we will ultimately build. " Amazon has also invested roughly $8 billion in AI start-up Anthropic, whose Claude models compete directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet's Gemini

On the other hand, By positioning itself as an everything store for AI, Amazon is betting it will earn a greater of the AI pie -- and fueling AWS growth along the way, amid market uncertainty

Furthermore, This's the fastest-growing As important as AWS is to Amazon's overall success, it has ceded the title as the company's fastest-growing

Amazon has asc the ranks to become the world's third-largest digital advertiser, behind Alphabet and Meta Platforms

While its ad first started as a way for Amazon to capitalize on the valuable digital real estate on its e-commerce platform, it has quickly come into its own

The platform's NFL games and other sports have been a boon to its advertising ambitions

Nevertheless, That said, the global advertising market is expected to surpass $1 trillion in 2025, which helps illustrate the magnitude of the opportunity that remains

Not one top-tier, but three You'd be hard-pressed to find another company with this many industry-leading es

Amazon is the global leader in digital retail and the world's second-largest retailer overall

AWS is the global cloud infrastructure leader, with a dominant 32% of the market, according to market analyst Canalys

Moreover, And, as previously stated, it's the world's third-largest digital advertiser, and closing the gap with its two larger rivals, in this volatile climate

Add in the wild card of AI -- which the company uses to imve the efficiency and fitability of its major segments -- and you have all the ingredients for a "forever" stock

Despite all that, Amazon stock is currently selling for just 31 times next year's expected earnings, in today's financial world

Given the company's successful track record and the long runway for growth ahead, I would argue that's an attractive price to pay for a company with so many ways to win

At the same time, John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors, given current economic conditions

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors

On the other hand, Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors, in this volatile climate

Danny Vena has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms (this bears monitoring)

Furthermore, The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and Meta Platforms, in today's market environment

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