Goldman Names Amazon As 2022 Top Internet Pick; Hails Uber, Lyft, Snap, Meta

Goldman Sachs named Amazon.com Inc AMZN as its top stock pick for 2022 in the Internet space, The Street reports.

Goldman analysts led by Eric Sheridan see Amazon as their top pick for 2022, assigning a Buy rating and a $4,100 price target, implying a 15.8% upside on November 16 closing price of $3,540.70. They view this recent earnings report as fully reflective of investor concerns on revenue and profitability into 2022. 

• Amazon has broader secular growth themes, including e-commerce, advertising, cloud computing, media consumption, and consumer subscription adoption.
• Goldman suggests investors should bet on Amazon despite rising wages and other hurdles rendering the e-commerce business more expensive, CNBC reports. It says that Amazon has already priced in the surging labor costs.
• Uber Technologies Inc UBER, Lyft Inc LYFT, Snap Inc SNAP, and Meta Platforms Inc FB also feature on the list of its top picks.
• Goldman says, "the most compelling buying opportunities in our ridesharing coverage (Uber/Lyft), as elements of recovery and increased profitability, take hold into 2022.
• Goldman adds Snap and Meta-Facebook "as mean reversion plays, as disappointing third-quarter 2021 revenues and forward commentary now sets. Both companies [will go] up as 'normalization' plays into 2022."
• In a look back at the Q3 earnings season for the Americas Internet group earlier, Sheridan highlighted what he sees as "a few key themes," including digital advertising excluding Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL proving to show the highest single stock volatility; streaming media players Netflix Inc NFLX and Spotify Technology SA SPOT emerging from a period of sustained stock underperformance to surprise to the upside; e-commerce trends remaining volatile; and online travel and ridesharing re-opening companies having "broadly painted a picture of improved recovery."
• Price Action: AMZN shares traded higher by 3.86% at $3,685 on the last check Thursday.