Online shopping titan Amazon (NASDAQ:
AMZN
) opened the week up over 3.5 percent after analysts at Morgan
Stanley (NYSE:
MS
) upgraded the stock from Equal-Weight to Overweight.
Citing expected share gains driven by the Seattle-based
company's global fulfillment network, Morgan Stanley now estimates
Amazon will reach 23.5 percent global GMV share and $166 billion in
sales in 2016. The previous estimates were 20.6 percent and $145
billion, respectively.
Morgan Stanley's upgrade comes as the latest in a string of good
news for the popular online shopping portal. On January 2, Amazon
announced a record-breaking holiday season with sales from US
sellers growing over 40 percent from last season. As a
lighthearted, though true illustration of their success, the
company noted that enough Santa hats had been sold so as to give
Santa a new hat every day for the next 137 years.
Also, on January 4, Amazon announced an agreement to run prior
seasons of popular A&E, Bio, History and Lifetime shows on its
Prime Instant Video service. The service, which now holds over
33,000 movies and television shows, can be thought of as Amazon's
version of Netflix (NASDAQ:
NFLX
).
Additionally, Amazon is rumored to have a phone in the works.
According to CNET
, Amazon will release a new mobile phone sometime between April and
September of this year. The phone is expected to cost $100 to $200
which, if true, would give it a price advantage over popular but
pricey phones from Apple (NASDAQ:
AAPL
), Google (NASDAQ:
GOOG
), Samsung (OTC:
SSNLF
) and others.
Thus far, the online shopping giant has opened 2013 where it
left off in 2012. After closing 2012 up over 40 percent, the stock
has already climbed over three percent in the first week of
2013.
According to Yahoo Finance
, 27 analysts have a "Buy" or "Strong Buy" rating. Ten have a
"Hold" rating and just one believes it will "Underperform." In
other words, analyst sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of owning
this stock.
Still, the future is far from certain. Despite an overall
positive outlook on the company, Morgan Stanley expects significant
threats from competitors such as Apple (NASDAQ:
AAPL
) as media sales move from physical to digital media. Morgan
Stanley also cautions Amazon could end up investing more than
expected to gain market share abroad.
So, the future success of the online shopping portal will hinge
largely on its adaptation to the realities of digital media and how
well its overseas investments go. However, with a plethora of
analyst confidence and highly positive future expectations,
investors will likely favor this stock in their portfolio, as
market activity already indicates on Monday.
(c) 2013 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice.
All rights reserved.
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