[Image: James Duncan Davidson used under license CC by 2.0]

Last week was a big week for the internet giant Amazon (AMZN). First, the company reached a milestone on Monday by exceeding Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) in market value for the first time ever. Then on Tuesday, it held its annual Amazon Prime Day to offer deals for current members and to attract new Amazon Prime customers. Amazon Prime membership offers free two-day shipping and also allows members to stream movies, televisions shows, and original programming, just like rival Netflix (NFLX).

Amazon’s stock value jumped 1.1 percent, or $7.97, to $753.78 per share on Monday, surpassing Berkshire Hathaway in market value. Amazon Prime Day on Tuesday was supposed to boost the stock even more, but with many shoppers experiencing online check-out problems, the reverse occurred, and the stock closed down 0.7 percent at $748.21 per share, putting Amazon below Berkshire Hathaway once again.

Amazon is a fixture on our top ten companies by market value list, and is vying to set itself in the top five, where Berkshire Hathaway occupies the final slot.  As of the end of trading day last Friday, Amazon was not in the top 5.

Table data as of 07/15/2016

Apple holds the lead with well over $500 billion in market capitalization and a BUY rated stock from Weiss. It was downgraded from B to B- in March 2016.

Amazon currently holds a C rating from Weiss after being downgraded from C+ in June, 2016. The company represents 5.9 percent of the consumer discretionary sector.

Amazon’s bottom line instability may be keeping the company from settling into a stable spot in the top five companies. It has been improving from a year ago; after reporting a $57 million loss for Q1, 2015 Amazon reported a $513 million profit in Q1, 2016. The company is expected to release its next earnings report by the end of July.

Stocks

Take a look at Weiss Ratings’ Gainers and Losers to see if your investments are among them. Or, see if any of your stocks got an upgrade or a downgrade.

With thousands of stock ratings and analysis reports to look at, Weiss Ratings empowers you to make a better financial decision when picking your investments. Use the Stocks Screener to truly find what you’re looking for, select any criteria you want and we will give you the stocks that fit your description.

If you’re having a difficult time navigating our website and using the tools, click here for a few helpful tips.  

ETFs

From the 1,600 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rated by Weiss, we picked out the top 10 largest by asset size.

The below ETFs are well over $50 billion in assets with a wide range of investment ratings ranging from A- to C. But, there’s one common characteristic shared by most: eight of them are provided by Vanguard.

Although the provider is the same, the investment strategies are different.   

Click here to see all ETFs sorted by asset size, the top 10 will appear on the first page.

Mutual Funds

With markets in recovery from Brexit, many 401k investors are left wondering how their hard earned cash is doing, and whether or not their investment fund basket needs to be changed.

Weiss Ratings’ analysis and ratings on thousands of mutual funds allows you to review your current investments, and help you make the right decision when picking the next ones.

Use our Mutual Funds Screener to find your investments and see how they’re doing. Thinking about replacing one fund with another? Use our comparison tool to set them side by side for direct comparison, and see the good and the bad about your alternatives.

Banks

Find the right financial institution to entrust your money by using Weiss Ratings’ Recommended Banks by State tool. Simply select your state from the drop down menu and click “View.” The list will populate with all B+ or higher rated banks that have branches in the selected state.

To see the weakest banks in the US (rated D or E) click here.

Weiss Ratings issues safety ratings on over 6,000 U.S. banks with analysis and custom reports available for every one of them.

Credit Unions

Based on Q1, 2016 credit union data analysis, 439 institutions received an “A” safety rating from Weiss. The number of “A” rated credit unions declined in Q1, 2016 but remained on the high side as compared to the prior quarters. Q1, 2016 had the second highest number of “A” rated credit unions since the mid 2013. Q4, 2015 was highest with 450 top rated credit unions.

In Q1, 2016 “A” rated credit unions represented 7.3 percent of the entire industry that is comprised of over 6,000 institutions. 

The graph below shows full ratings distribution for all credit unions rated by Weiss in Q1, 2016.

Insurance

Weiss Ratings upgraded the safety ratings of 24 life and annuity insurers and downgraded 18, based on our analysis of first quarter 2016 results. Weiss, the nation’s leading independent provider of bank, credit union and insurance company ratings, analyzed over 660 life and annuity insurers.

Weiss Ratings recommends that consumers do business with institutions rated B+ or better. Currently, there are 102 life and annuity insurers, or 15.3 percent, rated B+ or higher.

For a list of the strongest life and annuity insurers (rated A or B) click here.

Insurance Company Failures