AMZN Prints 15% Day, Wall Street Opens Its Cloud-Funded Arms 💸

Amazon (AMZN) shares surged 15.32% on Friday to close at $271.58, hours after the company delivered a second-quarter report that triggered more than a dozen Wall Street price-target increases. The report, published July 30, showed revenue of $200.6 billion, up 19.6% year over year and ahead of the $197.0 billion consensus. Earnings reached $5.75 per share against forecasts near $1.81, and the stock had already climbed 8.85% in after-hours trading immediately following the release.

The decisive factor was Amazon Web Services, whose revenue grew 36.8% to $42.2 billion — its fastest expansion in 18 quarters, roughly four and a half years. AWS backlog, representing contracted but not yet utilized customer commitments, climbed to $496 billion, about 2.5 times the level of a year earlier.

Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos lifted his target to $400 from $370, maintaining a Buy rating and describing the quarter as one of Amazon's best in at least 10 years. JPMorgan moved to $365 from $330, Rosenblatt to $345, and TD Cowen, Truist and KeyBanc each set targets at $350. Telsey Advisory Group set $335, Mizuho and RBC Capital $330, and Wolfe Research and Citizens held at $315. Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its target to $320 with an Overweight rating, while Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Jefferies had cut Robinhood targets a day earlier despite that company's own quarterly beat.

Benchmark attached a warning to its upgrade, flagging Amazon's cash position. Free cash flow over the trailing 12 months showed a $7.6 billion outflow, compared with $18.2 billion of surplus a year earlier. Chief Executive Andy Jassy has guided to roughly $220 billion in annual spending on data centers and chips, with filings across major cloud providers showing AI-related capital expenditure pressuring cash generation. Amazon guided third-quarter sales to $197 billion–$202 billion, placing the next checkpoint in August.