Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares tick higher in after-hours trading Thursday, after the retail giant released its first-quarter results, posting revenue of $35.7 billion, above consensus estimates of $35.34 billion. The beat was driven by strong retail performance, particularly within retail subscription services. Looking forward, second-quarter revenue guidance of $35.25-$37.75 billion was in line with consensus of $37 billion.
Baird’s top analyst Colin Sebastian noted, “At first glance, Q1 results were ahead of our expectations, albeit consistent with our positive thesis, including particular strength in Retail, Subscriptions and Other (Advertising), while AWS was generally stable in the face of price reductions. Margins were ahead of estimates in part due to revenue mix and higher gross profit.” As such, Sebastian reiterates an Outperform rating on shares of Amazon.
According to TipRanks.com, which measures analysts’ and bloggers’ success rate based on how their calls perform, 5-star analyst Colin Sebastian has a yearly average return of 20.7% and a 77% success rate. Sebastian has a 36.9% average return when recommending AMZN, and is ranked #19 out of 4571 analysts.
Out of the 42 analysts polled in the past 12 months, 39 rate Amazon stock a Buy, while 3 rate the stock a Hold. With a return potential of 8.7%, the stock’s consensus target price stands at $997.90.
