What Wall Street Analysts Think About Amazon's Post-Earnings Prospects

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN's stock spiked more than 12 percent Friday after the company reported third-quarter numbers that clearly impressed the market. A number of Wall Street analysts weighed in on Amazon following the report.

Here’s a rundown of what they had to say.

Voices From The Street

Citi analyst Mark May said revenue topped expectations across all three of Amazon’s operating segments. “The retail business benefitted from an expansion of Prime services globally and from Prime Day, which drove an acceleration in new memberships that should benefit future growth,” May wrote.

William Blair analyst Ryan Domyancic said AWS growth was the highlight of the quarter for Amazon. “We believe the strong AWS results are the biggest positive from the quarter, especially against the backdrop of investor concerns that competing cloud offerings are showing growth, the potential of certain industries choosing not to work with AWS for competitive reasons, and price cuts potentially weighing on margins,” Domyancic wrote.

Stifel analyst Scott Devitt said AWS, Prime and international expansion are the three keys to Amazon’s success. “We continue to support where the investments are focused and maintain our positive view. Amazon is the leader in two major markets (eCommerce and Cloud) with significant upside potential in other key areas such as devices (Echo) and grocery (Whole Foods),” Devitt wrote.

Loop Capital analyst Anthony Chukumba said Amazon is well-positioned for an acceleration in revenue growth. “We continue to believe Amazon is uniquely positioned to benefit from — and to some extent, drive — the ongoing secular shifts to online shopping and cloud computing, particularly given management's focus on continuous innovation,” Chukumba wrote.

UBS analyst Eric Sheridan said Amazon placated fears about near-term margin compression. “For investors, we continue to reiterate our stance that Amazon is a core holding to gain exposure to secular growth trends in eCommerce (driven by geographic expansion & category expansion), cloud computing, media consumption, digital advertising & AI voice assistants,” Sheridan wrote.

Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein said Amazon continues to justify its big spending with major revenue growth. “While bears will point to margin weakness, bulls will argue top-line growth demonstrates compelling return,” Helfstein wrote.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Graham said bulls will focus on accelerating revenue growth and above-consensus revenue guidance, while bears will focus on contracting operating margins and disappointing margin guidance. “In general, the Amazon/Prime flywheel seems to be fueling accelerating growth in B2C, and a rapid growth backdrop with benign pricing environment continues to help AWS in B2B,” Graham wrote.

Related Link: The Sell-Side Reacts To Advanced Micro Device's Q3 Earnings

Ratings And Price Targets

Wall Street is mostly bullish on Amazon following the huge quarter, but some analysts are more bullish than others:

• Citi has a Buy rating and $1,250 target.
• William Blair has an Outperform rating and no target.
• Stifel has a Buy rating and $1,313 target.
• Loop Capital has a Buy rating and $1,300 target.
• UBS has a Buy rating and $1,250 target.
• Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating and $1,165 target.
• Canaccord has a Buy rating and $1,250 target.

At time of publication, shares of Amazon were up 13.23 percent at $1,101.10.