Morgan Stanley's Top 4 Takeaways From Amazon's AWS Conference

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN's annual re:Invent conference for 2017 wrapped in Las Vegas on Friday, and Morgan Stanley shared four takeaways from the event in a note.

The Analyst

Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak maintained an Overweight rating on Amazon with a $1,250 price target.

The Thesis

• The 30 percent-plus, increase in attendance at the re:Invent reflects the growing interest in cloud, Nowak said. (See Nowak's track record here.)

• Innovation is catalyzing increased client spend. Morgan Stanley's conversations with clients showed that money is not the major factor clients consider while choosing to use AWS. With the company planning to introduce 1,300 new features and services by the end of the year, up from 1,000 in 2016, the firm said it views these as critical to AWS' ability to grow spend within its customer base.

• New and expanded enterprise client additions include a media- and internet-heavy list: Walt Disney Co DIS, NFL, Expedia Inc EXPE and Intuit Inc. INTU, to name a few. 

• The company emphasized Amazon Echo and Alexa. About 5 percent of the scheduled events at the conference featured Alexa. The company also showcased Alexa for businesses.

The Price Action

Amazon shares are up about 55 percent for the year-to-date period. However, at the time of writing the shares were slipping 1.35 percent to $1,160.90.

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Photo courtesy of Amazon.