<div id="readability-page-1"><p>This has been another strong year for the stock market, and once again <strong>Amazon</strong> <span>(AMZN<span> 1.77%</span>)</span> has been a market leader. The stock is up roughly 48% year to date as of this writing -- and more than 150% over the past five years. Despite its strong recent performance, it still seems like a sound choice in this current bull market.</p> <p>Let's look at four reasons investors should be buying Amazon stock like there is no tomorrow.</p>  <h2>1. Amazon is the cloud computing leader</h2> <p>Amazon is best known as being an online retailer, but the company's best segment for profitability is actually Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud computing unit. Over the past 12 months, AWS generated operating income of $36.4 billion, while North American operations have produced operating income of $22.2 billion and its international segment $2.1 billion. </p> <p>AWS is the leader in cloud computing, with about a 31% market share, ahead of <strong>Microsoft'</strong>s Azure at 20% and <strong>Alphabet</strong>'s Google Cloud at 12%. And with the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI), its cloud computing growth has accelerated. Last quarter, AWS revenue jumped 19% year over year, while the segment's income surged 49%. Amazon management called generative AI a &#34;once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity,&#34; noting that the AI-related revenue at AWS rose by triple-digit percentages in the quarter.</p> <p>The company is helping capture this AI opportunity in a few ways. Management says it is seeing more customers standardize on its SageMaker platform, which helps them build their own AI models, manage AI data, and move into production. It also provides foundational AI models, both from itself and other AI companies, through its Bedrock platform. Amazon said it had recently added <strong>Meta Platform</strong>'s Llama 3.2 models, Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, and Mistral's Large 2 models to the platform. </p> <p>The company is also making its own custom AI chips specifically for training large language models (LLMs) and AI inference. <strong>Apple</strong> has recently said it is an Amazon AI chip customer. </p> <p>AI remains a huge opportunity for AWS, and Amazon is investing to capitalize on this opportunity.</p> <div><p><img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://g.foolcdn.com/image//query-b3A9cmVzaXplJnVybD1odHRwczovL2cuZm9vbGNkbi5jb20vZWRpdG9yaWFsL2ltYWdlcy84MDE5NjAvZ2V0dHlpbWFnZXMtMTQ4Mzc4MDk5NS5qcGcmdz03MDA?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" width="700" height="432" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://g.foolcdn.com/image//query-b3A9cmVzaXplJnVybD1odHRwczovL2cuZm9vbGNkbi5jb20vZWRpdG9yaWFsL2ltYWdlcy84MDE5NjAvZ2V0dHlpbWFnZXMtMTQ4Mzc4MDk5NS5qcGcmdz03MDA"/></p><p>Image source: Getty Images</p> </div> <h2>2. Amazon is still the online retail king</h2> <p>Although AWS has become Amazon's most important business, it is still the e-commerce king. The days of explosive retail growth have passed, but its retail segment still performs well. Last quarter, it grew its North American revenue by 9% year over year, and its international revenue was up by 12%.</p> <p>The company continues to invest in automation and is using AI to help with warehouse efficiency and to better plan shipping routes. This helps with costs and is leading to even stronger profitability growth: Last quarter, its North American segment saw its operating income soar 33% year over year, while its international segment flipped to profitability. </p> <p>Amazon will look to use AI to help revenue growth as well. It is employing it to make it easier for third-party sellers to be able to list their products on its site. Its AI is also helping with better product recommendations and to better answer customer questions about products. </p> <p>And the company is seeing solid growth with its sponsored ad business, with AI helping to improve the relevancy of ads it serves in this area as well.</p> <h2>3. Winners win</h2> <p>Over time, Amazon has proved itself to be a winner. And at the end of the day, winners find ways to win. The company has shown itself to be able to innovate and adapt.</p> <p>It started out by selling books online to become the largest online retailer and logistics company in the world. In doing so, it completely disrupted the entire retail industry. Meanwhile, its largest and fastest-growing business, AWS, is an industry that Amazon created from a side project. </p> <p>Amazon has always been willing to spend money and invest in order to grow to win, and with the huge AI opportunity, there is every indication it will do what it takes to be a big winner.</p> <h2>4. Amazon has an attractive valuation</h2> <p>In addition to its strong businesses and solid growth outlook, Amazon also trades at an attractive valuation. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of about 36.5 is based on 2025 analyst estimates. Its valuation has risen, but it's still below where it has traded from a historical P/E level prior to 2023.</p> <p>The company's earnings will often be impacted by periods of investment, but it has always come out the other side stronger after these periods.</p> <p><img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://media.ycharts.com/charts/8d7a7beb8b9f4174a7c55bf3165269f2.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" width="720" height="539" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://media.ycharts.com/charts/8d7a7beb8b9f4174a7c55bf3165269f2.png"/></p> <p>AMZN PE ratio (forward 1y); data by YCharts.</p> <p>Overall, Amazon is a great company trading at a reasonable valuation, with a long history of being an innovator and winner. That is the type of stock that can be a core holding.</p>                                                                                             </div>

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<p>Amazon's stock has surged 48% this year, driven by its leadership in cloud computing through AWS, which generated $36.4 billion in operating income. The company continues to dominate online retail, with a 9% revenue increase in North America. Amazon's innovative approach and investment in AI position it well for future growth. Despite a rising valuation, its forward P/E ratio of 36.5 remains attractive compared to historical levels, making it a compelling investment opportunity in the current bull market.</p>

- Amazon has demonstrated strong performance in the stock market, with a 48% increase year to date and over 150% growth in the past five years.  
- The company leads in cloud computing through Amazon Web Services (AWS), which generated $36.4 billion in operating income last year, and is capitalizing on the AI opportunity with significant investments.  
- Despite the maturity of its retail segment, Amazon continues to grow, leveraging AI for efficiency and profitability, while maintaining an attractive valuation with a forward P/E ratio of about 36.5.

The Bull Market Keeps Growing: 4 Reasons to Buy Amazon Like There's No Tomorrow