Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares were in demand on Tuesday Morning after analysts at BMO Capital Markets hiked their price target for the ecommerce giant.
BMO’s Daniel Salmon reckons the stock is worth US$1,600 now – the highest of any analyst according to Factset – which would give the firm a market value of around US$771bn.
In a note on Tuesday he was upbeat about Amazon’s advertising opportunities and reckons the ad business represents an US$18bn total addressable market “in the midterm”.
Salmon reckons Amazon could eventually generate 22% of its total gross merchandise value from direct response ads.
Analysts at Oppenheimer also raised their price target on Tuesday – albeit to a slightly more conservative US$1,450 – as they picked Amazon as their “top large-cap pick” for 2018.
“Amazon is best positioned among our large-cap universe to benefit from secular trends – shift to ecommerce, public cloud, automation and digital advertising – further supported by an improving global macroeconomic backdrop and domestic tax reform,” wrote Oppenheimer’s Jason Helfstein.
Amazon shares were up 2%, or US$25.41, to US$1,330 early on Tuesday.