On Monday, October 26, UBS analyst Stephen Ju assigned a ‘Buy’ rating to Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock, while also increasing his 12-month price target from $318 to $348.
According to the note, the decision to forecast a 40.08% upside from $248.43 at press time rather than the previous 28% was largely rooted in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) margin increase expectations.
Specifically, the Wall Street analyst explained that strong incremental revenue can outpace operating expense growth, which is needed to offset pressures related to artificial intelligence (AI).
AI capital expenditures (CapEx) have been in focus since 2026, as a mix of dubious profitability and skyrocketing costs has generated doubts about the sustainability of the technology and seemingly compelled multiple blue-chip giants to issue new equity.
Amazon likewise came under scrutiny earlier in October when it was revealed that the company remains unable to install the hardware it acquired for artificial intelligence data centers due to a lack of energy.
The news was especially concerning due to the company lacking a clear installation timetable and the relatively short useful life of advanced GPUs.
Analysts predict Amazon (AMZN) stock price in the next 12 months
Meanwhile, Wall Street remained largely unfazed by the recent developments.
Indeed, AMZN shares are, overall, considered a ‘Strong Buy’ by institutional experts and boast forty-two positive, two ‘Hold’, and no ‘Sell’ recommendations, per the data Finbold retrieved from TipRanks on October 26.
The average Amazon stock price target for the next 12 months is similarly optimistic and estimates the equity will rally 32.89% to $331.54 within the timeframe.
Amazon stock price performance in the next 12 months
Lastly, AMZN shares have been experiencing significant volatility through most of 2026 and, despite being 10.22% in the green year-to-date (YTD), they have generally been declining since early August and have dropped 12.14% within the timeframe.
Looking ahead, Thursday, October 29, has the potential to alter Amazon stock’s trajectory for the rest of the year, depending on the specifics unveiled in the quarterly earnings report Jeff Bezos’ company is scheduled to publish.
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