Wedbush analysts have high hopes for Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s upcoming third quarter results on October 30, given what they called positive commentary around Amazon Web Service (AWS) growth, “healthy” trends for the core retail business, and strong advertiser demand.
In a note to clients on Friday, the analysts highlighted several potential catalysts in the intermediate-term, including more meaningful improvements in cost to serve driven by deeper automation and robotics, commercialization of new AI capabilities in Alexa, monetization of Project Kuiper, which could begin late this year, and an expected increase in Prime Subscription prices in 2026.
The Wedbush equity research team added that they are encouraged by the implied level of AWS demand given the pace of backlog growth and a higher capital expenditure guidance for 2025.
They see Amazon reporting Q3 revenue growth of 12.9% to $179.37 billion, ahead of consensus estimates of $177.9 billion.
Believing the risk/reward tradeoff is attractive ahead of the company’s Q3 results, the analysts reiterated their ‘Outperform’ rating and raised their target price on the stock to $280 per share from $250.
Amazon shares rose 1.5% to $224.42 in midday trading on Friday.