Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) may report softer online retail sales in the first quarter, while the company’s Web Service business may help offset the slowdown in growth in the business, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson said in a research note.
The online retail sales may miss estimates for the quarter with growth of 21% from a year earlier, compared with 23% in the fourth quarter, Olson said. Still, Amazon will probably have other “segment revenue upside” in the period from advertising, he added.
Amazon is slated to report earnings on April 26.
The analyst recommends owning Amazon stock for “the plethora of topline tailwinds,” he wrote in the note. Olson reiterated his Overweight rating on the shares with a US$1,650 price target.
Amazon shares closed yesterday at US$1,527.84.