Amazon Just Pushed ExxonMobil Out As Fourth-Largest Company

Need more evidence that Amazon is taking over the retailer world? Consider this: As of Monday (Aug. 1), Amazon has become the fourth-largest company based on market capitalization, pushing aside ExxonMobil, the mega oil company.

Currently, Amazon’s market capitalization stands at $366 billion, which is higher than the $354 billion market capitalization that ExxonMobil has. The only three companies ahead of Amazon are also technology players — Apple, with a market capitalization of $567 billion; Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which has a commanding market capitalization of $564 billion; and Microsoft, which has a market capitalization of $445 billion.

It’s not surprising that it is all technology companies that round out the top five largest companies based on market capitalization, since there has been a shift going on with the global economy in which internet and technology companies are becoming more dominate and traditional companies, like oil producers, are losing value, in part, because of a decline in oil prices and also a push toward clean energy.

The growth in Amazon’s market capitalization comes after the eRetailer had a strong showing for its second quarter, which it reported last week. For the second quarter, Amazon reported earnings per share of $1.78, blowing past Wall Street expectations of $1.11 a share. Revenue for the quarter was $30.4 billion, also higher than the $29.55 billion Wall Street was looking for.

For the quarter, Amazon said operating cash flow rose 42 percent to $12.7 billion, while free cash flow rose to $7.3 billion for the trailing 12 months. That compares with $4.4 billion in the same period a year ago. Net sales increased 31 percent to $30.4 billion. Some of the highlights for the quarter included Amazon’s second annual Prime Day, which the company said was the biggest day for the eRetailer. Compared to last year’s Prime Day, orders grew by more than 60 percent from third-party sellers. During the quarter, Amazon also launched Prime in India and disclosed that Fire TV was the number one best-selling streaming media player in the U.S. during the second quarter.