Amazon Stock Down Despite Wall Street Backing Ahead of Earnings

This post was originally published on this site

Investing.com – With Amazon set to report earnings in coming the days, Wall Street is upping its bets on a good quarter from the e-commerce giant.

But Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) was down 1.3% in afternoon trading.

Ahead of its April 30 earnings report, Oppenheimer lifted its price target on Amazon by $300 to $2,700, with analysts estimating that Amazon’s 175,000 employee additions represent a $75,000 increase to quarterly net online sales for each new hire.

In a sign that Amazon’s e-commerce business is set for a solid quarter, Target (NYSE:TGT) reported 100% quarter-to-date digital sales growth, Oppenheimer said.

The upgrade adds to a string of bullish calls seen today, with SunTrust raising its price target on Amazon to $2,770 from $2,450 on hopes that the coronavirus-related jump in demand will boost top-line growth. Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) also upped its price target on Amazon to $2,800 From $2,400 and Loop Capital raised its price target on the stock to $2,900 From $2,380.

But not everyone on Wall Street is backing Amazon.

Wall Street firm R5 Capital downgraded its rating on Amazon to sell from buy and cut its price target on the stock to $1,987 from $2,408, on concerns that slowing growth in its money-making businesses and rising costs will keep a lid on future revenue growth and profit.

Wedbush also flagged slowing growth in Amazon’s cloud business, AWS, as a potential headwind, but remained bullish on the stock.

Wedbush updated its fiscal 2020 estimates on Amazon to reflect higher net product sales and physical store revenue, but said the top-line growth would be “offset somewhat by lower expectations for net service sales and AWS growth, along with higher fulfillment costs.”