Amazon’s burgeoning cloud computing platform and its central retail business should lead to a “steady and iterative” year for the company, according to Credit Suisse.
The investment bank increased its 12-month price target on Amazon to $1,800 from $1,750 on Friday, arguing that it should see meaningful revenue growth thanks to its budding media content as well as from core segments like Amazon Web Services and retail.
That implies more than 15 percent upside for shares over the next 12 months from Thursday’s close. Amazon reports earnings next Thursday.
“E-commerce growth for the next two decades will hinge on harder-to-handle non-homogeneous product verticals, and Amazon is one of the best positioned to capture the next wave of retail dollars coming online,” wrote analyst Stephen Ju, who has an outperform rating on shares.
Amazon bought Whole Foods Market last year as it looks to increase its offering of fresher foods. The company is likely trying to replicate its success in harder to deliver product categories like food and areas where people traditionally like to shop in person such as apparel.
Ju said that updates to the Credit Suisse estimates came after reviewing Amazon’s updated asset and cash flow figures for Amazon Web Services and retail operations, recently disclosed in a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Apparel and groceries remain large pools of dollars still left to come online, and Prime Wardrobe and the linkup between Whole Foods Market content and Prime Now distribution will serve as the spearheads to address those opportunities,” the analyst said.
Shares of Amazon rose 0.2 percent in premarket trading following the Credit Suisse report; the stock is up more than 70 percent over the past 12 months.
