Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) stock price hits three-year high, analysts raise target price to $290.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) stock price recorded its largest single-day gain in nearly three years on Friday. Thanks to double-digit growth in cloud computing and retail businesses, this e-commerce giant exceeded expectations for both revenue and profit for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company's third-quarter performance showed a 16% increase in profit compared to the previous year, driven mainly by strong performance in online retail, subscription services, and Amazon.com, Inc.'s cloud service (AWS). Analyst Ahan Vashi from investment research platform Seeking Alpha commented, "Amazon.com, Inc. easily surpassed Wall Street's expectations, with AWS and advertising business serving as the two main growth engines. As long as the macro economy remains resilient, Amazon.com, Inc.'s growth momentum is expected to continue in the foreseeable future." He pointed out that Amazon.com, Inc. is in a new phase of steady growth, and its diversified business structure provides a solid foundation for profit expansion. Investment firm Seaport Research raised Amazon.com, Inc.'s target price from $250 to $290. Seaport analyst Aaron Kessler pointed out in the research report that Amazon.com, Inc. shows continuous growth potential in AI-driven cloud computing, laying the foundation for long-term profitability. With the accelerated growth of AWS and the widespread application of AI technology in enterprise services, Amazon.com, Inc. is expected to further consolidate its leadership position in the global cloud computing market. Wall Street analysts generally believe that Amazon.com, Inc. CEO Andy Jassy's performance in the financial report was "impressive," especially with the help of the self-developed Trainium chip, AWS business is still able to maintain high growth rate. Needham analysts Laura Martin and Dan Medina stated in their research report, "Amazon.com, Inc. is the only super-large-scale cloud vendor that has not faced cloud computing power constraints. Since 2022, the company has doubled its cloud capacity and is expected to continue to grow by 2027." Although much of the market focus has been on the performance of AWS, the company's retail business has also shown strong resilience, indicating that consumer spending has not slowed down due to macro pressures or tariff uncertainties. The financial report showed that online store revenue increased by nearly 10% year-on-year, while net sales of third-party seller services increased by 12%, both exceeding expectations. Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein pointed out, "Amazon.com, Inc. is one of the few large-cap tech companies that can continue to benefit from the long-term structural growth trend of global e-commerce. Its vast selection of products, low-cost rapid delivery, and successful products such as Kindle, Prime Video, and Amazon Music continue to expand market share in the competition." It is worth noting that the operating profit margin for the quarter slightly decreased, but the main reason is the $25 billion expense set aside by the company for settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Seeking Alpha analyst Kenio Fontes stated that excluding this one-time impact, Amazon.com, Inc.'s operating profit margin would actually expand by 100 basis points to 6.9%. He added, "If the profit margin compression is due to structural cost increases, then it would indeed be a negative signal, but the change this quarter is mainly a cyclical rather than a structural factor."