Amazon's Jeff Bezos Becomes World's Third Richest Person

Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder, chairman, chief executive and president, Jeff Bezos, has again hit the headlines. According to Forbes, he is now worth $65.8 billion, which makes him the third richest person in the world and the second richest in America.

What Drove Bezos’ Fortunes?

On Tuesday, Warren Buffett, CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRKa) (BRK.B) lost $1.3 billion as the fallout of Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)'s fake account scandal. The bank has been fined a combined $190 million by the California and federal regulators as it was alleged of illegally opening millions of unauthorized accounts to meet their aggressive internal sales goals. As a result, the bank’s stock dropped 3% in the trading session.

The scandal dealt a huge blow to Buffett, who owns two million shares of Wells Fargo. Also, Berkshire Hathaway owns 10% of Wells Fargo, making up the bulk of Buffett’s wealth. Moreover, Buffett has been donating generously recently, decreasing his net worth. Currently, Buffett has a net worth of $65.5 billion, which is down by $300 million from Bezos.

Secondly, an 8% rise in Amazon’s share price over the past week also earned Bezos the third place on the esteemed list. Its second annual Prime Day earlier this month aimed at boosting off-season sales and rake in more Prime members became the best sales day ever for the online retailer, leading to a solid surge in the share price.

The wealthiest person in the world continues to be Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) founder Bill Gates, with a net worth of $78 billion, followed by Zara founder, Amancio Ortega, who holds a net worth of $73.1.

Conclusion

While Buffett has been sitting atop the list of the richest in America for long, Bezos’ rise is more recent. Bezos entered the celebrated list in 1998 with a net worth of $1.6 billion, while Buffett found his way into it way back in 1982, with a net worth of $250 million.

Last May, Jeff Bezos was on the list of the world’s top 10 richest people, with a net worth of $40 billion.

Amazon continues to see revenue growth and generate robust cash flow quarter upon quarter (discounting seasonal variations). Investors continue to believe in Amazon’s prospects, especially its cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services and Amazon Prime, which have been increasingly adding subscribers.

But uncertainty regarding its investment plans and the probability of continuing losses still prevail.

So, it will be interesting to see whether Amazon’s continued success pushes Jeff Bezos further up the list of the world’s wealthiest.

Amazon currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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Stocks To Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the technology sector are Stamps.com Inc. (NASDAQ:STMP) , Autobytel Inc. (NASDAQ:ABTL) and PetMed Express (NASDAQ:PETS) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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