Amazon innovated e-commerce with online shopping and free two-day shipping for members. The company also led the cloud computing boom with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company recorded $638 billion in net sales in 2024 and a $59.2 billion profit.1 While AWS and online marketplace sales make up most of the total sales, Amazon also generates revenue from Whole Foods, advertising, Twitch, Amazon Prime Video and other income streams. This guide will reveal how to buy Amazon stock and provide an analysis so you can decide if Amazon stock is right for you.
Money.ca takeaways
- Buying Amazon stock is easy with a brokerage account. You can purchase full or fractional shares by opening an account, creating an order ticket, and specifying the ticker symbol “AMZN.”
- Amazon offers long-term growth potential. The company dominates e-commerce and cloud computing and continues to expand into high-demand areas like AI, streaming, and grocery retail.
- Investors should weigh performance and competition. While Amazon has outperformed the S&P 500, it has lagged some tech peers and faces increasing pressure from regulators and rivals in the cloud space.
Amazon stock price today
How to buy Amazon stock
Investors who buy Amazon stock can benefit from the company’s long-term growth. If you’re not sure how to buy Amazon stock, these steps will help.
- 1 Open a brokerage account: You need a brokerage account to buy and sell stocks, including Amazon. Comparing multiple brokerage accounts will help you find the right one for your finances. It only takes a few minutes to set up an account at most firms. You will have to provide personal information like your name, email address and Social Security Number during the application process.
- 2 Open an order ticket: The process of buying and selling a stock always starts with an order ticket. Many brokerage firms have straightforward dashboards that make it easy to create these tickets. You can choose between a market order or a limit order. Market orders are executed at the current price, while limit orders are executed at the price point that you designate. Those orders will not go through if Amazon stock doesn’t reach your desired price point.
- 3 Specify Amazon stock: You can type “AMZN” into your order ticket to specify Amazon stock. Some brokerage firms let you provide the company’s name instead of the ticker, but it’s good to know a stock’s ticker symbol. The order ticket will then display Amazon’s current price. Investors can refresh their order tickets to see the updated price of Amazon stock.
- 4 Decide on the number of shares: Each order ticket requests that you specify how many shares of Amazon stock you want to buy. Most brokerage firms let you buy fractional shares if you do not have enough cash to buy an entire share. For instance, you can buy 0.5 shares of Amazon instead of an entire share if you want to gradually build a position.
- 5 Execute the order: After reviewing your order ticket, you can submit the order. If you placed a market order, you should see Amazon stock in your portfolio if you refresh the page. Limit orders may take more time to go through if it takes a while for Amazon to reach your desired price point. You can cancel a limit order before a stock reaches the designated price per share or keep your limit order open.
Need more information?: Check out How to buy stocks in Canada
About Amazon
Amazon was founded in 1994 and started as an online bookstore before expanding into the tech giant that it is today. The Seattle-based company is the leader in the e-commerce and cloud computing industries. It also has exposure to other verticals, such as advertising, streaming, groceries and gaming. The company has a long history of reinvesting profits into its business and acquiring other companies so it can gain market share and minimize its tax burden.2
Is Amazon a good stock to buy?
Amazon has delivered solid returns for long-term investors, though it has trailed some of its tech peers. Over the past five years, Amazon stock has gained approximately 70.5%, outperforming the S&P 500 but lagging the Nasdaq Composite.3 However, Amazon has underperformed fellow cloud computing leaders like Microsoft and Alphabet, which saw five-year returns of 145.2% and 160.9%, respectively.4
So far in 2025, Amazon stock is down 15.7% year to date, though it still maintains a strong long-term outlook.5 The tech giant continues to outpace many e-commerce competitors, including Shopify, Alibaba and eBay.
As of early 2025, Amazon maintains a “Strong Buy” consensus among analysts, reflecting continued confidence in its market position and growth prospects.6
Amazon is heavily investing in artificial intelligence, with over 1,000 generative AI applications in development. The company has introduced the Trainium2 chip, offering 30–40% better price-performance, and is enhancing its AWS offerings to support AI workloads.7
Amazon stock on the TSX | Amazon stock CAD hedged
If you're looking for a simple way to buy Amazon stock in Canadian dollars, look for AMZN.NE on your brokerage platform. This is a Canadian Depositary Receipt (CDR) — a type of security that lets you invest in a U.S. company like Amazon on a Canadian exchange, in Canadian dollars.
When you see “DR” next to a stock on the TSX or Cboe Canada, it means Depositary Receipt. In this case, it’s a CDR, which tracks the value of Amazon’s real U.S. stock — but with two big benefits for Canadian investors:
- You don’t need to convert currency — the CDR is CAD-hedged, meaning it protects you from U.S. dollar fluctuations.
- You can buy fractional exposure — because each CDR represents a slice of one full U.S. share, you can invest with a smaller upfront cost.
As of April 2025, AMZN.NE is trading at around $21.09 CAD. That’s a far cry from the U.S. price of Amazon stock, which is in the hundreds of dollars. But don’t worry — you’re still buying Amazon. The CDR reflects the underlying performance of the real AMZN stock, just in a more accessible format for Canadian portfolios.
Pros of buying Amazon through a CDR:
- You invest in CAD — no foreign exchange headaches
- It’s easier to buy a small amount and build a position over time
- You get exposure to Amazon’s performance, including price gains and stock splits
- It trades on a Canadian exchange, like Cboe Canada
- You get voting rights like you might with direct stock ownership
- The value is managed by the issuer (CIBC), and tracking may slightly differ from the U.S. stock
- Dividends, if paid, are subject to a withholding tax like with any U.S. equity
Alternative ways to buy Amazon stock
Don’t want to buy Amazon stock directly? You can still invest in it through an ETF — short for exchange-traded fund. ETFs are like bundles of stocks you can buy in one shot, kind of like a mutual fund but traded on the stock market. They’re a great way to get a slice of Amazon and diversify your portfolio at the same time.
To buy an ETF, just type the ETF symbol (called a ticker) into your brokerage account the same way you would for a stock like AMZN.
Here are a few ETFs available to Canadians that include Amazon:
- VFV (Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF) – Tracks the S&P 500, which includes Amazon.
- XUS (iShares Core S&P 500 Index ETF) – Another solid pick that gives you broad U.S. exposure.
- ZUE (BMO S&P 500 Hedged to CAD Index ETF) – Ideal if you want to protect against U.S. dollar swings.
- QQC.F (Invesco QQQ ETF – CAD-hedged) – Focuses on U.S. tech-heavy Nasdaq companies, including Amazon.
- VEQT (Vanguard All Equity ETF Portfolio) — A cheap and efficient way to get instant global diversification.
These ETFs offer exposure to Amazon without betting everything on one stock. Plus, you get built-in diversification and often lower fees than mutual funds.
Related read: Best ETFs in Canada
Pros and cons of buying Amazon stock
- Amazon is a leader in e-commerce and cloud computing
- The company regularly invests profits back into the business and makes acquisitions
- Amazon has outperformed the S&P 500 over the past five years
- Government scrutiny and regulations can hamper Amazon’s growth and limit its ability to make big acquisitions
- Amazon has underperformed the Nasdaq Composite over the past five years
- Competitors are gaining ground in cloud computing, AI and other industries
FAQs
Marc Guberti is a certified personal finance counselor and a freelance writer who resides in Scarsdale, New York. His work has been featured in US News & World Report, Newsweek, InvestorPlace, and other publications.
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