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Amazon valuation exercise: market cap, EV and multiples vs competitors

Online retail, cloud. We rebuild its market value from the price, split it into its parts, and compare its multiples with those of its largest competitors.

Verified figures, not advice. Every number on this page comes from the company's own filings or from exchange prices, and the source is linked. Every calculation is shown, so you can repeat it. What we do not do is tell you what a share should be worth or whether to buy it: that depends on your goals and on forecasts, and no multiple can settle it. This is a snapshot: prices of 12 Oct 2026, company results up to mid 2026. Found a mistake? Tell us and we correct it.

Step 1. Market capitalisation

StepNumberWhere it comes from
Share price (nominal value)
$259.53
Close of 12 Oct 2026
Shares outstanding
10.79 bn
Latest quarterly report cover page, as of 2026-07-22
Market capitalisation
$2.80tn
Price x shares

Market capitalisation is the value the stock market puts on all the shares together. It is the nominal share price multiplied by the number of shares.

Step 2. How the value is composed

Building blockAmountMeaning
Market capitalisation
$2.80tn
What the market asks for all the shares
+ Debt
$132.5bn
Borrowings, leases for premises excluded
- Cash
$78.2bn
Cash and equivalents
- Short-term investments
$44.8bn
Marketable securities due within a year
+ Minority interests
$0.0bn
Part of subsidiaries owned by others
Enterprise value (EV)
$2.81tn
The price of the whole business, as a buyer would see it

Of the $2.80tn market value, accounting book equity is $551.6bn. The remaining $2.25tn is what investors pay above the books: brands, software, customer relationships and expected growth that the balance sheet does not record. Price to book is 5.1x.

Step 3. Fundamentals, last twelve months

Last twelve monthsAmountMargin or note
Revenue
$775.7bn
Up to 2026-06-30
Operating income
$93.7bn
12% of revenue
EBITDA
$168.9bn
22% of revenue
Net income (GAAP)
$135.3bn
17% of revenue
Free cash flow
-$7.6bn
Operating cash flow minus capital spending

Step 4. Multiples against the largest competitors

MultipleAmazonWMTCOSTSHOPEBAYPeer meanPeer medianvs median
P/E (price / net income)
20.7x
40.6x
46.1x
119.6x
22.9x
57.3x
43.4x
-52%
EV / sales
3.6x
1.3x
1.4x
17.0x
4.5x
6.0x
2.9x
+23%
EV / EBITDA
16.6x
19.9x
28.6x
120.5x
18.5x
46.9x
24.2x
-31%
EV / operating income
30.0x
29.2x
35.1x
122.4x
22.0x
52.2x
32.1x
-7%
P / free cash flow
n.m.
66.4x
45.3x
98.0x
21.0x
57.7x
55.9x
n.m.

Context: Amazon earns an EBITDA margin of 22%. The peers earn 6%, 5%, 14%, 25% (median 10%). A company that keeps more of each dollar of sales often trades at a higher multiple.

Retail peers fit the shopping side of Amazon. Its cloud business (AWS) earns most of its profit and has different peers, so the retail multiples fit only part of it.

What the comparison shows

  • EV / EBITDA: 16.6x against a peer median of 24.2x (mean 46.9x). Difference to the median: -31%.
  • EV / sales: 3.6x against a peer median of 2.9x (mean 6.0x). Difference: +23%.
  • P/E: 20.7x against a peer median of 43.4x. Difference: -52%.

These are descriptions of today's prices, not forecasts. "n.m." means not meaningful, for example negative profit.

Where the comparison is distorted

  • Net income is inflated by about $77bn of pre-tax revaluation gains on its Anthropic stake over the last twelve months. Free cash flow is negative because capital spending is very high. Finance leases of $13.5bn are not in debt here.
  • Shopify net income includes unrealized investment gains, so its P/E looks different from its operating profit.

Sources

Prices of 12 Oct 2026 from exchange historical data. Share counts, debt, cash and results from each company's filings with the US SEC, read on 13 October 2026 (Sony: its filings and the ECB exchange rate of 12 Oct 2026).

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)
Walmart Inc. (WMT)
  • sec.gov (shares_outstanding)
  • sec.gov (FY2026 full-year income statement and cash flow)
  • data.sec.gov (XBRL cross-check of all values)
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST)
Shopify Inc. (SHOP)
eBay Inc. (EBAY)

Questions people ask

Does a higher multiple than competitors mean the share is overvalued?

No. It means investors pay more per dollar of sales or profit. The reason can be faster growth, higher margins or lower risk, or it can be excess optimism. A multiple gap is a question to investigate, not an answer.

Why use enterprise value and not only market cap?

Market cap prices the shares only. Enterprise value adds debt and subtracts cash, so it compares the whole business regardless of how it is financed.

Why show both the mean and the median of competitors?

The mean is pulled up by one extreme value. The median is the middle value and resists outliers. When they differ a lot, trust the median more.

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