Should you sell Amazon stock now or just hold on a bit longer? That’s the question a lot of people are typing into Google right now, with AMZN closing at $238.34 on June 30 and ticking up to $239.30 in after-hours trading, sitting closer to the lower end of its 52-week range of $196.00 to $278.56. And the truth is, the sell Amazon stock now question isn’t really coming from analyst pessimism, since out of 41 analysts covering the stock, around 95% of them rate it a Buy or a Strong Buy, with an average price target close to $312.99. For most people, whether to sell Amazon stock comes down to their own goals, not some hidden problem with the company, and right now the AMZN stock outlook still leans pretty bullish heading into earnings.
Also Read: Amazon Stock Price Target Jumps After AWS GPU Hike: Buy Now?
Sell Amazon Stock Or Hold Analyst Outlook And Portfolio Moves
Why Wall Street Has Not Turned Bearish On This One
Amazon carries a market cap around $2.56 trillion at the time of writing, and AWS has helped hold that scale up, posting close to 28% revenue growth last quarter, while advertising has also kept growing above 20% a year. Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney, who actually sees close to 50% upside in the stock, put it this way:
“At the end of the day, Amazon remains a high quality compounder (25% EPS compound annual growth rate), with solid double-digit revenue growth, expanding operating margins, and free cash flow likely to inflect up materially in a 24-month timeframe.”
That kind of comment explains why the idea of Amazon stock being a sell hasn’t really caught on with most of the Street, even with shares trading well off their 52-week high.
When Trimming A Few Shares Actually Makes Sense
Deciding to sell Amazon stock now doesn’t have to mean dumping the whole position. Investors who loaded up too heavily on big tech after the long run-up have often heard the same advice, including on places like Reddit’s ValueInvesting forum, just trim a slice of shares instead of selling out completely. That way you lock in some gains while you still hold long-term exposure to a stock that roughly 95% of its analysts rate a Buy.
AWS also raised prices on its reserved GPU capacity for a third straight quarter recently, and Wells Fargo’s Ken Gawrelski, who has kept a $312 price target on the name, reads that move as a sign that compute demand is outpacing supply right now, which gives a fairly bullish read on where AWS, and the stock along with it, is headed next.
How To Actually Sell If You Decide To Go Through With It
If you decide to sell, a market order fills your shares right away at whatever price is currently on offer, while a limit order only goes through once AMZN hits a price you set yourself, which protects you from a sudden drop but might never execute if that price never gets hit. To place either one, you log into a brokerage such as E*TRADE, Fidelity, Robinhood, or Trading212, find your AMZN holding, hit Sell, type in how many shares, and confirm.
So, Should You Sell Amazon Stock Now Or Not?
None of the 41 analysts tracked has slapped a Sell or Strong Sell rating on this stock, and that’s not a small thing to ignore if you’re a long-term holder. Whether you actually sell Amazon stock or not really comes down to your own portfolio and how exposed you already are to tech, and not to any obvious crack in the business. The AMZN stock outlook, at least for now, still points toward growth through AWS and advertising, even with the stock trading well off its highs.
