Morningstar runs the numbers

We take a numerical look through this week's Morningstar research. Plus, our most popular articles and videos for the week ended 26 March.

Lex Hall

29 March 2021

We take a numerical look through this week's Morningstar research. Plus, our most popular articles and videos for the week ended 26 March.

25 per cent

By 2030, we forecast Amazon to account for about 25 per cent of Australian online retail sales, or 5 per cent of the total Australian retail market, says Morningstar analyst Johannes Faul. “Two retailing categories Amazon excels in globally are consumer electronics and books. The most exposed companies to a rapidly expanding Amazon within Morningstar’s Australian coverage universe are JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH), Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN), and Kogan (ASX:KGN).”

110 per cent

In the 1970s, the US experienced some of its highest inflation. Throughout that decade, prices increased more than 110 per cent, and the annual rate of inflation was just over 14 per cent by the early 80s,writes Morningstar’s Carole Hodorowicz. “The Federal Reserve carried out monetary policies to combat the rising prices, and inflation steadily slowed down in the following decades. This decrease in inflation from decade to decade was a period of disinflation.”

1971

The year in which the Nasdaq was founded, writes Morningstar’s Ali Masarwah. The Nasdaq was the world's first fully electronic trading platform, a computer exchange—but not a market where only computer or technology stocks are traded, writes Masarwah. “Moreover, in the 1990s, ‘technology’ and ‘computer’ companies were often used interchangeably, perpetuating this misunderstanding. In short, the index often brings together growth companies that opted for a listing on the Nasdaq and not on the NYSE. The best-fit description would be that the Nasdaq is a market segment that contains a big bunch of fast-growing companies.”

23 million

The estimated number of accounts in Robinhood. The trading app’s growth has been impressive, and the company has found no shortage of funding, writes Margaret Giles. “One of Robinhood’s co-founders told members of Congress in February that the brokerage has more than 13 million users,” Giles writes. “JMP Securities estimated that Robinhood’s total accounts may actually be closer to 23 million. Through January 2021, the company has raised nearly $5.6 billion. After its last deal, Robinhood’s post valuation was $11.87 billion, according to PitchBook, a Morningstar company.”

$505 billion

Ecommerce juggernaut, Amazon is the world's highest-grossing online retailer. The company clocked a staggering US$386 billion ($505 billion) in net sales and about US$482 billion in estimated physical/digital online gross merchandise volume in 2020. Retail remained the biggest revenue generator representing nearly 83 per cent of the total, followed by Amazon Web Services (12 per cent), and advertising services and co-branded credit cards (6 per cent). More than a quarter of non-AWS sales came from the international market, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan.