Amazon pares loss as Wall Street bulls pound the table on long-term upside
georgeclerk

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the topic of discussion on Friday after the e-commerce's forecast for slower-than-anticipated growth rattled investors. On Wall Street, analysts pounded the table that despite the near-term headwinds for consumers, the long-term bull thesis on AMZN is still very much alive.
Goldman Sachs reduced its price target on Amazon (AMZN) to $165 from $176, but stayed constructive on the long-term trajectory.
"Based on our work, we remain convinced in a multi-year operating income margin expansion story for Amazon on the back of improved eCommerce margins, less International losses & higher profit margin mix contribution from AWS and advertising."
Morgan Stanley reiterated an Outperform rating on AMZN and still sees it as a long-term winner, although it lowered its price target to $140 for the near term.
"AMZN is seeing the consumer/enterprise slowdown more than thought, leading to lower rev and a flatter slope of volume-based efficiencies... But we think AMZN is positioned to take share through a downturn, see forward investment levels low, and the potential for cost rationalization."
For its part, Bernstein said the good news in the mix is that the Amazon story is not broken, but just pushed out into 2023.
Bank of America called the Amazon (AMZN) guidance unusually conservative as it pointed out that higher energy costs and shift to leisure spend impacted the overall retail outlook. Of note, the firm warned that Amazon's outlook suggested a recession in the U.S. has arrived. BofA reiterated a Buy rating on AMZN and set its price objective at $137.
"We think Amazon is well positioned to capitalize on the global growth of eCommerce and other secular trends such as cloud computing, online advertising and connected device."
J.P. Morgan noted the pressures on Amazon are largely macro-driven and not fundamental. The firm kept an Overweight rating but clipped its price target to $145 from $175.
Raymond James reduced its price target on Amazon (AMZN) to $130 from $164, but also stayed bullish with an Outperform rating kept in place.
"While we expect a more challenging growth outlook near-term, we remain positive on long-term growth for both retail and AWS with improving margins over time as Amazon focuses on productivity improvements," noted RJ.
Evercore ISI reminded that Amazon (AMZN) has a clear track record of operating through economic cycles and has been belt-tightening since Q1. In the firm's view, investors can have some comfort that Outperform-rated AMZN will defend the bottom line in the quarters ahead. The price target was cut to $170 from $180 due to near-term pressures.
Shares of Amazon (AMZN) fell 12.95% in premarket trading on Friday to $96.62 to pare their loss from when the earning report first dropped on Thursday after the closing bell.
Dig through the Amazon earnings call transcript. 
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