The Best Stock in Washington State: Amazon.com

We scoured the nation to identify the best stock in every state. Amazon.com (symbol AMZN) is the publicly traded company we picked in Washington. The company headquarters is located in Seattle.

A word of caution: Since we selected a single stock from each state (plus one from D.C), and choices in some states are sparse, a few of our picks are best suited to investors comfortable with a higher degree of risk. This is not necessarily one of our 51 favorite stocks in the entire U.S., in other words.

Amazon.com by the Numbers

• Headquarters: Seattle
• Share price: $1,001.03
• Market value: $478.6 billion
• Price-earnings ratio: 125

(Prices and data are as of June 22, 2017)

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Amazon’s world takeover continues. The retail behemoth announced in June its intention to acquire upscale grocer Whole Foods Market (WFM) for $42 a share. As a result of the merger, say analysts at Wedbush, Amazon is positioned to rapidly expand its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery business, for which Prime subscribers currently pay an additional $15 per month. The purchase also means that Amazon picks up 440 Whole Foods stores, located in most major urban areas in the U.S. representing a big increase in refrigeration-equipped distribution centers for the company. Amazon may eventually offer grocery delivery in an hour or less nationwide, says Wedbush.

In the meantime, analysts say, Whole Foods stores will be ideal outlets for popular Amazon products such as Kindle, FireTV and Echo. Wedbush sees the acquisition driving sales growth over the next several years as the company expands its grocery business, and it assigns an “outperform” rating to the stock along with a 12-month price target of $1,250.