Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) may be the home of online shopping, but it might soon also be the main way people actually get online. It’s recently announced a new development in its Project Kuiper plan that will give it a little extra room to run in the market, but investors aren’t particularly happy about it. Amazon is actually down slightly in Thursday afternoon’s trading session.
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The latest move features Amazon building a new technology into its Project Kuiper satellites that will, ultimately, produce some exciting new results. It’s built what it calls a “laser link technology,” a kind of tracking system that allows satellites to spot where they are in orbit and connect to each other. Normally, satellites can only connect to the ground or to an individual spacecraft. But with the laser link system, they can communicate among themselves, which should improve speed and performance. Interestingly, this won’t have much impact on Starlink, as it already makes use of a similar technology. Thus, Project Kuiper is mostly playing catch-up at this point.
A Timely Tip
Improvements to Project Kuiper are a good long term help, but won’t have much impact on Amazon right now, especially since no one can subscribe to the Amazon ISP as yet. Of a more immediately relevant bent, however, is word that Amazon is offering up a special “tip your driver” program that won’t actually cost you anything. Many of us like to tip assorted service personnel this time of year; the mail carrier, the paperboy, the garbage men, so on and so forth. But for those with an Alexa, all they need do is say “Alexa, thank my driver,” and said driver will get $5 and a notification of said appreciation. Those without an Alexa need only search “thank my driver” on Amazon’s site or mobile app to do likewise.
Is Amazon a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on AMZN stock based on 42 Buys assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 66.92% loss in its share price over the past year, the average AMZN price target of $177.32 per share implies 21.17% upside potential.
