Piper Says Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet Attractive Despite Regulatory Pressure

Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson believes shares of Amazon.com (AMZN), Facebook (FB) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) remain attractive despite increased regulatory pressure in the near-term.

While current regulatory challenges present “multiple issues over the next few months,” the long-term outlook remains favorable for all three companies, Olson tells investors in a research note. The analyst believes Facebook may be becoming less exposed from a regulatory perspective going forward given that the company “has now done extensive work to bring its platform in line with recent privacy regulations and because it is now giving the deserved attention to privacy.”

Between the three companies, Alphabet may face the most regulatory headwind given its open infrastructure marketing platform exposure on privacy and targeting, susceptibility to copyright changes through YouTube, and its dominant position in search amenable to antitrust issues, the analyst contends. However, he believes Google, YouTube, Android, and Gmail together “create a once-in-a-generation asset with continued strong revenue growth potential, high margins, and secular tailwinds.”

For Amazon, Olson sees the biggest worries as antitrust and Post Office changes. However, he thinks antitrust law precedent will be upheld and points out the company continues to build its own last-mile delivery to lessen its dependency on the United States Postal Service.