Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Itochu (OTCMKTS:ITOCY) Financial Survey

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Itochu (OTCMKTS:ITOCY) are both large-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

72.2% of Amazon.com shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of Itochu shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Amazon.com shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Amazon.com has a beta of 1.49, indicating that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Itochu has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Amazon.com and Itochu, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amazon.com	0	3	55	2	2.98
Itochu	0	1	1	2	3.25

Amazon.com presently has a consensus price target of $321.74, suggesting a potential upside of 24.08%. Given Amazon.com’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Amazon.com is more favorable than Itochu.

Profitability

This table compares Amazon.com and Itochu’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amazon.com	16.90%	15.72%	7.79%
Itochu	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Amazon.com pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Itochu pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Amazon.com pays out 1.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Itochu pays out 17.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Amazon.com and Itochu”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amazon.com	$797.46 billion	3.52	$77.67 billion	$12.37	20.96
Itochu	$98.47 billion	1.16	$5.63 billion	$0.93	15.48

Amazon.com has higher revenue and earnings than Itochu. Itochu is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amazon.com, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Amazon.com beats Itochu on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content. In addition, the company offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products in its stores; and programs that allow authors, independent publishers, musicians, filmmakers, Twitch streamers, skill and app developers, and others to publish and sell content. Further, it provides compute, storage, database, analytics, machine learning, and other services, as well as advertising services through programs, such as sponsored ads, display, and video advertising. Additionally, the company offers Amazon Prime, a membership program. The company's products offered through its stores include merchandise and content purchased for resale and products offered by third-party sellers. It serves consumers, sellers, developers, enterprises, content creators, advertisers, and employees. Amazon.com, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Itochu

ITOCHU Corporation engages in trading and importing/exporting various products worldwide. The company’s Textile segment produces and sells raw materials, threads, and textiles; and garments, home furnishings, and industrial materials, as well as trades in industrial textile and lifestyle products. Its Machinery segment engages in the plants, bridges, railways, and other infrastructure; power generation, transmission, transformation, and sale; water, environment and waste-related; ship trading; renewable and alternative energy; and waste recycling businesses. The company’s Metals & Minerals segment engages in development of metal and mineral resource; processing and steel products; trading of iron ore, coal, pig iron and ferrous raw materials, non-ferrous and light metals, steel products, nuclear fuels, and greenhouse gas emissions; and recycling and waste treatment activities. Its Energy & Chemicals segment trades in crude oil, petroleum products, LPG, LNG, natural gas, hydrogen, organic and inorganic chemicals, functional food, synthetic resins, packaging materials, household goods, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and electronic materials, as well as engages in the solar and biomass power generation, electricity trading, and the energy storage cell businesses. The company’s Food segment produces, distributes, and retails food products. Its General Products & Realty segment produces and sells paper, pulp, natural rubber, tire, and wood products and materials; develops and operates real estate properties, such as housing, logistics facilities, and other projects; and offers logistics services. The company’s ICT & Financial Business segment offers IT, Internet related and venture capital, mobile telephone equipment, BPO, broadcasting and communications, entertainment and content, healthcare and preventive medicine outsourcing, and financial and insurance brokerage services. The company was founded in 1858 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.