The company joined fellow Big Tech firms including Microsoft
(MSFT.O), opens new tab in starting to see overall results benefiting from
their heavy AI investments, while also outlining more spending in 2024 to
develop the much-hyped tech.
"Most encouraging to us is that in spite of strong
numbers ... several of the most important, incremental drivers have really only
just begun (for Amazon)," RBC Capital Markets analyst Brad Erickson said.
At least eight brokerages raised their price target on the
stock as the retail giant posted a 14% rise in sales in the holiday quarter,
pointing to strong online spending despite a strained economy.
"We believe Amazon is executing extremely well and the
challenges the company faced in Retail during the pandemic and in AWS through
optimizations will make the company stronger on the other side,"
J.P.Morgan analysts said in a note. The brokerage was one of the most bullish
on the stock, raising its price target by $35 to $225.
Shares of the company, which rose 81% in 2023, were trading
at $168.39 before the bell, a day after Amazon also forecast current-quarter
revenue to be as much as $143.5 billion. Analysts had expected $142.13 billion,
according to LSEG data.
"The real reaction is to their guidance, where other
tech firms have been softening revenue ranges and earnings per share targets,
Amazon has come out with a much higher than expected range," said Jamie
Meyers, senior analyst at Laffer Tengler Investments, which holds shares of
Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon.
As of last close, the stock was trading at 40.51 times its
forward earnings per share, compared with 31.57 for cloud rival Microsoft, opens new tab and 23.75 for retail competitor Walmart, opens
new tab.
Amazon is set to add more than $100 billion to its market
capitalization if premarket gains hold.
Despite hefty investments this year going into building
cloud infrastructure to support the rapid adoption of generative AI technology,
investors were bullish.
"I would expect that the recent state of generative AI
investments should eventually lead to strong return on investment," said
Krishna Chintalapalli, portfolio manager at shareholder Parnassus Investments.
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