Wall Street Rushes to Raise Amazon Targets After 15% Post-Earnings Stock Surge
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Amazon shares jumped 15.32% to $271.58 after Q2 results topped estimates, with AWS revenue up 36.8% to $42.2 billion and a $496 billion cloud backlog prompting multiple banks to raise targets, including Benchmark to $400. Analysts warned Amazon burned $7.6 billion over the past 12 months and CEO Andy Jassy plans roughly $220 billion in spending on data centers and chips, a funding risk that will determine whether cloud growth drives broader adoption of crypto infrastructure, DeFi projects and security-conscious CEX/DEX operators.
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In Brief
- Amazon stock jumped 15.32% on Friday and closed at $271.58.
- Benchmark now sees $400, the highest Amazon price target on Wall Street.
- Amazon burned $7.6 billion of cash over the past year as spending climbed.
Amazon (AMZN) stock jumped 15.32% on Friday and closed at $271.58. Within hours, more than a dozen banks raised their price targets on it.
The trigger was Amazon’s second quarter report, published July 30. Its cloud business grew much faster than Wall Street expected.
Amazon (AMZN) Stock Performance. Source: Yahoo Finance
What Set Off the Amazon Price Target Race
Amazon sold $200.6 billion of goods and services in the quarter. That is 19.6% more than a year ago. Analysts had expected $197.0 billion. Profit came in at $5.75 per share, against forecasts near $1.81.
One number mattered most. Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud arm, grew 36.8% to $42.2 billion. That was its fastest growth in 18 quarters, or about four and a half years. The Q2 earnings beat had already lifted the stock 8.85% after hours.
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Benchmark Now Sees Amazon at $400
Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos raised his target to $400 from $370 and kept a Buy rating.
He called it one of Amazon’s best quarters in at least 10 years. He has followed the company for close to 20 years.
JPMorgan went to $365 from $330. It pointed to Amazon’s cloud backlog, meaning work customers have committed to but not yet used.
That backlog hit $496 billion. It is roughly 2.5 times the level of a year ago. Rosenblatt moved up to $345. TD Cowen, Truist and KeyBanc each landed on $350.
Telsey Advisory Group said $335. Mizuho and RBC Capital said $330. Wolfe Research and Citizens both stayed at $315.
The Cash Problem Nobody Solved
Benchmark attached a warning to its own upgrade. Amazon is burning cash, and it has not explained how it plans to fund everything.
Free cash flow is the money left over after a company pays its bills and builds its facilities. Over the past 12 months, Amazon spent $7.6 billion more than it brought in. A year earlier it had $18.2 billion to spare.
Chief Executive Andy Jassy now plans to spend about $220 billion this year on data centers and chips. Memory prices have climbed. Filings showed AI spending draining cash at every big cloud provider before this week.
Not Every Stock Got This Treatment
Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Jefferies cut Robinhood price targets a day earlier. Robinhood had also beaten forecasts.
Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its Amazon target to $320. It changed how it values the stock but kept an Overweight rating.
Wolfe Research prices Amazon at 30 times its expected 2027 profit. The stock currently trades near 24.5 times.
Amazon expects sales of $197 billion to $202 billion next quarter. That hands the stocks to watch crowd a checkpoint in August.
The $400 call rests on one thing. Amazon has to turn that $220 billion of spending into cash.
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