One of the dominant names in tech today, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is a business that has become almost synonymous with wealth creation.
The e-commerce behemoth has had a good year thus far — at press time, Amazon stock was trading at $229.44, with year-to-date (YTD) returns standing at 53.03%, after a 13.82% gain on the monthly price chart.
On October 31, the business held its Q3 2024 earnings call, marking its seventh consecutive beat in terms of earnings per share (EPS). Although the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has continually been selling Amazon stock, future prospects look quite bright for the venture.
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The announcement of Amazon Nova, a suite of AI models, as well as a lucrative $158 million defense contract, have gone a long way in engendering positive sentiment among Wall Street’s top equity researchers.
This wide-ranging bullish stance was recently reinforced when two Wall Street researchers revisited their price forecasts for the next 12 months.
Equity researchers reiterate bullishness on Amazon stock
On December 16, two analysts representing some of Wall Street’s premier firms increased their price targets on AMZN stock.
JMP Securities analyst Andrew Quail maintained his previous ‘Market Outperform’ rating — in addition, he reiterated his previous price forecast of $285. Focusing on the results of the company’s Q3 2024 earnings call, the researcher reflected on Amazon beating both top and bottom line estimates, although he did note that net sales guidance came in slightly disappointing.
However, Quail is bullish on the whole — highlighting operating income guidance, margin growth, and Amazon’s wide selection of non-discretionary items as potential growth drivers. Last but not least, he mentioned the growth of the company’s advertising business, as well as AWS’s exposure to AI as tailwinds going into 2025.
Meanwhile, Brent Thill, the leader of Jefferies’ tech sector and software/internet equity research team raised his price target from $235 to $275, maintaining a prior ‘Buy’ rating. If met, his price forecast would represent a 19.85% increase compared to the current Amazon stock price.
In a note shared with investors, Thill stated that ‘strong AI revenue potential over time’ is present due to Amazon’s more than 50% market share as a cloud service provider. He also opined, quite colorfully, that management’s Q4 EBIT guidance of $16 billion to $20 billion ‘put a dagger’ on the feared investor ‘boogey’ of $16.5B to $17B at the high end, while also acknowledging slightly disappointing revenue acceleration with AWS.
Amazon’s next earnings call is due February 6 — since price action has been positive over the last thirty days, investors should keep an eye out for any dips going forward which could serve as more attractive entry points.
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