Amazon Stock Is Trading Higher Thursday: What's Going On?

Amazon.com Inc AMZN shares are trading higher Thursday. Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet became generally available in Amazon Bedrock. Amazon’s business unit also announced a number of new technology features.

What To Know: Amazon on Thursday announced that Anthropic’s latest and most capable AI model Claude 3.5 Sonnet became generally available in Amazon Bedrock as part of Anthropic's Claude family of AI models. 

According to Anthropic, the new model outperforms other models that are currently available, including OpenAI's GPT-4o and Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro. Amazon has invested $4 billion in Anthropic.

Amazon also introduced several new technology features including the Amazon Business App Center, System for Cross-domain Identity Management and Integrated Quoting. 

“Amazon Business wants to change how companies shop for supplies through our unmatched selection, deep discounts, and smart capabilities,” said Shelley Salomon, worldwide vice president of Amazon Business.

“We don’t just react to the biggest challenges our customers have shared with us; we get ahead of them with new technologies so our customers can use their resources to navigate the unexpected and continue expanding their business.”

Amazon Business recently conducted research and found that U.S. procurement teams are struggling to drive efficiencies within their organizations. To help address this challenge, Amazon Business introduced and upgraded several tools designed to help large business customers simplify and modernize the way they shop for business supplies.

Amazon noted that Amazon Business is now a strategic partner to businesses in 10 countries including Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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AMZN Stock Forecast For 2030

Interest rates play an important role in the equity markets. When rates are high, it can discount the present value of future cash flows, which can put pressure on growth stocks such as Amazon. This is because the majority of Amazon’s profits are expected to be realized in the future. Higher interest rates increase a company's cost of capital. If you're curious about learning about stockholder equity and how the balance sheet is evaluated, check out the resources here.

Long-term investors should also look at a company's historical revenue growth and decide whether they think it is likely to increase, slow down or remain stagnant. Amazon's revenue has grown at an average rate of 19.47% annually over the past five years.

Amazon operates in the Consumer Discretionary sector and has a forward P/E of 39.22, suggesting it is considered a growth stock. Investors in growth stocks generally focus on the company's future plans and industry growth, while value investors see stable revenue streams and dividend growth.

AMZN Price Action: Amazon shares were up 1.31% at $185.20 at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro.

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