Amazon's Upfront Presentation Highlights Strong Push into Movies and Sports Advertising: Analyst

Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein reiterated an Outperform rating on Amazon.Com Inc AMZN with a price target of $220.

Wednesday, Amazon hosted its first-ever NYC Upfront presentation to leading advertisers and agencies. 

The analyst flagged that content with known talent will be expensive but likely drive viewership. He said there will be a heavy mix of movies vs. TV despite the traditional upfronts for TV ad buying. 

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Sports will build over time, as per the analyst. The company announced many projects for 2025, and therefore, investors should expect a significant tailwind in the second half of 2025.

Overall, the presentation was movie-heavy, given the acquisition of MGM. As per Helfstein, Amazon is still catching up to the level of TV shows on other streamers. 

With the advertising launch in Prime Video, the analyst expected a significant ramp in TV development. However, the event had plenty of “star power” to get advertisers’ attention, Helfstein flagged. Sports are also a significant focus, but it is developing slowly as Amazon acquires more rights, he said. 

He added that metrics were limited to “millions” of ad-supported customers, tens of millions of customers, and 47% unique audience reach. Touting “scale with precision” and the ability to use endemic shopping signals has historically not been used in TV advertising. 

The analyst said that Netflix Inc NFLX will host its presentation on Thursday morning.

The analyst republished his Prime Video ads analysis, which he said could represent $3.4 billion of operating income once fully unveiled, or 5% of his 2025 estimate.

The analyst projected second-quarter revenue and EPS of $148.6 billion and $1.08.

Amazon.com stock gained 67% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary Index ETF FDIS and ProShares Online Retail ETF ONLN.

Price Action: AMZN shares traded lower by 1.06% at $185.08 at the last check Wednesday.

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