Though Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) growth in 2024 is indisputable – particularly as the stock reached a new all-time high (ATH) earlier in the year – the performance has been anything but smooth.
The long uptrend has been broken multiple times since January – with the biggest pullback rapidly taking AMZN shares from $187 to $161 within days – as the e-commerce giant benefitted from factors such as its involvement with artificial intelligence (AI) and suffered from supply chain issues, air-conditioning controversy, regulatory scrutiny, and heightened competition.
Still, the Amazon stock market tally – at least at press time on October 24 – remains firmly in the green, as AMZN is 23.92% in the green with a price of $185.80.
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On the other hand, the most recent trading indicates the e-commerce titan is on another pullback, as its shares are 1.40% in the red in the last five days and declined 1.78% in the last 24 hours.
Street experts revise Amazon stock ratings
While Amazon has experienced its fair share of stock market ups and downs, analysts have generally remained firmly optimistic about Jeff Bezos’s company, as evidenced by its overall ‘strong buy’ rating across the price target aggregate platforms.
The most recent revisions have, likewise, been overwhelmingly bullish about AMZN stock.
On October 22, for example, three separate firms revised their assessments of Amazon stock. All three judged it a ‘buy’ and forecasted substantial price upsides.
The highest 12-month target assigned came in at $230 from BMO Capital. Despite acknowledging some uncertainty stemming from the pressure consumers faced due to inflation, the associated analysis emphasized the positive expectations for the growth of Amazon’s cloud business.
Specifically, BMO expects the e-commerce giant to announce a 20% growth in the particular area in its third-quarter (Q3) report for 2024 compared to the same trimester in the preceding year.
Simultaneously, Bernstein’s Mark Shmulik proved optimistic despite his price target being $20 lower than BMO’s at $210. Jefferies Brent Thill settled for the October 22 middle ground as he forecasted AMZN shares would rise to $225.
The situation proved much the same one day later when Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) also confirmed it considers Amazon stock a ‘buy’ and revealed it expects it to rise to $210 within the coming 12 months.
BofA, however, emphasized Amazon’s recent initiatives, such as the $0.10 per gallon fuel discount for Prime members at about 7,000 locations in the U.S., as one of the key factors for the latest rating revision.
What is next for Amazon share price?
Beyond the bullish and bearish factors considered by Wall Street experts, numerous developments, both large and small, have occurred for Amazon in recent weeks.
On October 16, the e-commerce giant announced a new series of its Kindle e-readers, including a color variant. The move finally introduced Amazon’s competitors to Kobo and Pocketbook Color readers.
At the titanic side of developments, Jeff Bezos’ company joined the AI nuclear race as it is set to invest $500 million in compact reactors in cooperation with Dominion Energy.
Fission reactor stocks surged into prominence in September and October as multiple big tech firms unveiled their plans to utilize the power of the atom to fuel their data centers.
The trend also generated one of the most impressive rallies of the year when another compact reactor company – Oklo Inc. (NASDAQ: OKLO) – exploded nearly 200% within a month.
Elsewhere, Amazon also came under pressure as it became designated as one of the sellers of ‘unsafe’ toys in Europe, though its involvement with the issue is somewhat vicarious.
