Technology

What Analysts Are Saying About Amazon After Earnings

courtesy of Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) absolutely blew past expectations and blew away investors and analysts alike with its most recent earnings report highlighting a strong AWS operating result. As a result of these incredible earnings, analysts cascaded into this stock. 24/7 Wall St. has taken some of the major highlights from the earnings report and combined it with what all these analysts are saying about where Amazon stands to go from here.

The company said it had $1.07 in earnings per share (EPS) on $29.13 billion in revenue, versus Thomson Reuters consensus estimates that called for $0.58 in EPS on revenue of $27.98 billion. In the same period from last year, Amazon posted a net loss of $0.12 per share on $22.72 billion in revenue.

As for its business segments, Amazon reported:

  • North America net sales grew 27% to $17.00 billion.
  • International net sales grew 24% to $9.57 billion.
  • AWS net sales grew 64% to $2.57 billion.


In terms of guidance for the second quarter, the company expects to have net sales in the range of $28.0 billion to $30.5 billion, or to grow between 21% and 32%, and for operating income to be in the range of $375 million to $975 million. The consensus estimates call for $0.99 in EPS on $28.33 billion in revenue.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, commented on earnings:

Amazon devices are the top selling products on Amazon, and customers purchased more than twice as many Fire tablets than first quarter last year. Earlier this week, the $39 Fire TV Stick became the first product ever — from any manufacturer — to pass 100,000 customer reviews, including over 62,000 5 star reviews, also more than any other product ever sold on Amazon. Echo too is off to an incredible start, and we can’t yet manage to keep it in stock despite all efforts. We’re building premium products at non-premium prices, and we’re thrilled so many customers are responding to our approach.

Analysts absolutely poured into Amazon after the earnings news hit the tape:

  • Merrill Lynch raised its price objective to $840 from $750.
  • S&P kept its Buy rating but raised the price target to $745 from $685.
  • Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating but raised its target to $880 from $800.
  • Baird has an Outperform rating and raised its price target from $710 to $780.
  • Benchmark raised its price target to $750 from $735.
  • Canaccord Genuity has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $765 from $750.
  • Cowen has an Outperform rating and raised its price target from $750 to $830.
  • Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating and raised its target to $900 from $800.
  • Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $800 from $720.
  • Jefferies raised its target price to $865 from $775, with a rating of Buy.
  • JMP Securities raised its price target to $775 from $710.
  • JPMorgan has an Overweight rating with a $915 price target.
  • Macquarie has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $760 from $725.
  • Mizuho has a Buy rating and raised its price target from $685 to $810.
  • Nomura has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $775 from $750.
  • Raymond James raised its price target to $770 from $655.
  • RBC Capital Markets has an Outperform and raised its price target to $800 from $715.
  • Wedbush Securities has an Outperform rating and raised its target price from $700 to $775.

Shares of Amazon closed at $659.59 on Friday, with a consensus analyst price target of $740.49 and a 52-week trading range of $414.55 to $696.44.

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