Amazon (AMZN) saw its stock surge as much as 15% on Friday after its Q2 earnings report topped Wall Street forecasts thanks to Amazon Web Services. AWS generated $42.2 billion in second quarter revenue, up 36.7% year over year, fueled by strength across both its core cloud business and AI services. “We added over $4.6 billion in revenue quarter over quarter — about 80% more than our largest increase ever. Our backlog stands at $496 billion, growing triple digits year over year,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said during the company’s earnings call.
Amazon’s stock is now up 17% YTD, picking up steam after shares fell in value throughout June. Heading into the earnings report, Wall Street was closely watching Amazon’s cloud growth and capital expenditures on AI infrastructure. While expenditure will climb according to the e-commerce giant, AWS’ stellar revenue is driving the momentum for Amazon, sending its stock to a two-month high.
While AWS draws much of the attention, Amazon’s core retail business remains healthy as well. North America sales grew 16% year over year to $116.2 billion, while International sales increased 15% to $42.2 billion. Amazon also reported record delivery speeds for Prime members and strong growth in grocery and everyday essentials categories. Furthermore, Amazon’s advertising business continued to expand rapidly, growing 26% year over year. Advertising has become one of Amazon’s highest-margin businesses and serves as another important profit driver alongside AWS.
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Following the earnings report, many Wall Street firms reiterated buy ratings for AMZN stock, flooding the market with momentum. Wells Fargo, Citi, Wedbush, among others, all reiterated buy ratings on Friday after the breakout earnings. Per TipRanks, based on 38 Wall Street analysts offering 12-month price targets for Amazon, the average price target is $332.76 with a high forecast of $400.00 and a low forecast of $250.00. The average price target represents a 22.53% upside from the stock’s closing price on Friday,