We knew that this week should be rich with tech news as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) fires up in earnest. The good news here is that online retailer Amazon (AMZN) did indeed make an appearance, and its latest device is already catching attention. And investors were pleased with the reveal as well, sending shares up modestly in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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The new device is a smart smoke alarm in the Ring lineup, a product developed in partnership with the Kidde brand, best known for its fire extinguishers. The new Ring smoke alarm—which will also offer up a carbon monoxide alarm as well, noted a CNBC report—will work in much the same way a Ring doorbell does. The smoke alarm can connect with Ring home security, and can even send alerts to the Ring mobile app.
The smart smoke alarm will cost $54.97 when it hits retail this April, and the version that also detects carbon monoxide will run $74.97. Plus, there will also be a $5 monthly subscription service available that offers “round-the-clock professional monitoring and emergency dispatchers.” However, users will not have to subscribe to the Ring Home service to use the smoke alarms, which is a plus.
Christmas Time at Amazon
The Washington Post also rolled out quite the report on Christmas time at Amazon, which apparently features three key elements: free swag, prize giveaways, and mandatory overtime. For those of you who, like me, did all their Christmas shopping via Amazon this year, we know that Amazon is particularly busy during the holidays, hence the extra overtime. But Amazon tried to soften the blow, at least somewhat, with special events during the season. Raffles and a catered meal from Golden Corral also made appearances.
An internal gingerbread building contest was part of the “fun.” The report noted that the winner of the contest was a “…spiced-cookie figure in a safety vest like those worn by Amazon workers tended a prone gingerbread person wrapped in a Band-Aid.” But considering that an Ohio warehouse had to post a notice reminding workers to ‘…shower and use deodorant,” perhaps what those workers needed more than holiday fun was a little time off.
Is Amazon a Good Long-Term Investment?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on AMZN stock based on 46 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 52.25% rally in its share price over the past year, the average AMZN price target of $248.84 per share implies 9.45% upside potential.
