Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) delivered second-quarter results after the bell on Thursday, with both industry stalwarts beating expectations.
The results prompted a wave of analyst updates, with Apple stock up 1.49% in pre-market trading and Amazon shares falling 8.30% as of the time of publication.
Wall Street sets Apple targets as high as $240
Apple turned in solid fiscal third-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s expectations, with earnings per share coming in at $1.57 compared to the projected $1.43.
Revenue grew almost 10% to $94 billion, ahead of the $89.2 billion estimate. The company’s Services business also continued its strong run, hitting a record $27.4 billion and making up nearly 30% of total revenues.
Following the release, BofA Securities raised its target to $240 from $235, keeping its Buy rating and noting Apple’s stronger-than-expected quarter and guidance. The banking giant pointed to solid iPhone unit performance ahead of anticipated design changes.
Morgan Stanley, too, lifted its target to $240 from $235, maintaining an Overweight rating. The firm cited better-than-expected results across products, services, and margins.
Barclays also increased its target, though more modestly, from $173 to $180.
Analysts predict Amazon price targets as high as $275
Amazon reported $168 billion in revenue and $19.2 billion in profit in its second quarter, both beating Street estimates at $162 billion and $17 billion, respectively.
But investors were more concerned with the company’s AWS cloud business, which grew 18% to $30.87 billion. And while that did meet expectations, it didn’t show the kind of acceleration that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) demonstrated in their cloud divisions.
Still, analysts largely stuck with Amazon. Barclays raised its price target significantly, from $240 to $275, saying AI could boost AWS growth by several percentage points in the fourth quarter, especially through Amazon’s work with Anthropic.
BofA Securities increased its target to $272 from $265, highlighting Amazon’s retail business where unit growth picked up steam, accelerating 4 percentage points to 12% year-over-year.
DA Davidson bumped its target to $265 from $230, while UBS held steady at $271 despite the cloud growth questions.
Featured image via Shuttertsock.
