Amazon
bulls are ringing in the new year by highlighting opportunities for the huge online retailer to bulk up its position in multiple realms.
First on that list of opportunities? An uptick in advertising revenue growth, resulting from the addition of ads to Prime Video later this month and other advertising partnerships, should boost margins, wrote BofA Securities analysts led by Justin Post in a Wednesday report. They rate shares at Buy with a price target of $168.
That advertising opportunity was also highlighted by Wedbush analysts last month. The Wedbush team, led by Scott Devitt, maintained their Outperform rating and lifted their price target to $210 from $180 in a report titled “Still Day One for Amazon Ads; The Everything Stock.”
However, this year isn’t just about advertising. DA Davidson analysts led by Gil Luria weighed in on another element, assuming coverage of shares at Buy with a price target of $195, up from the firm’s prior call of $157.
“We still see a long ramp ahead across all of its businesses,” Luria wrote in a Tuesday report. “We believe a potential re-acceleration of growth in Amazon Web Services could drive upside to shares in 2024, as AMZN gets some of the Generative Artificial Intelligence boost already in MSFT, GOOGL and
META
shares.”
Amazon shares were 0.2% lower at $149.59 in Wednesday trading, while
Microsoft
gained 0.2%,
Alphabet
gained 0.5%, and
Meta Platforms
dipped 0.5%.
Over the past 12 months, Amazon stock has gained 76%. Views about the company on Wall Street remain extremely positive: 98% of the analysts covering the stock rate the shares at Buy, according to FactSet.
Write to Emily Dattilo at [email protected]
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