Oppenheimer pointed to accelerating growth at Amazon Web Services as a major driver for shares of Amazon . The bank maintained its outperform rating on the e-commerce giant. Oppenheimer also named the stock a top mega-cap pick, and lifted its price target to $315 from $305. The revised target implies upside of 29% from Tuesday’s close. Analyst Jason Helfstein attributed his bullish view to higher Amazon Web Services estimates, especially after analyzing the impact of Anthropic, an Amazon-backed AI startup founded by former OpenAI research executives. AMZN 1Y mountain AMZN 1Y chart “Now assuming FY26 AWS revenue +24% vs. Street’s +21%. Based on $11B of Anthropic AWS revenue, with core stable at +18% y/y, notably still below our prior GW analysis, suggesting this could be conservative,” the analyst wrote, noting that ex-Anthropic growth also continues to look strong. Helfstein added that Amazon’s Web Services segment has achieved significant value as the global leader in cloud computing. Helfstein also pointed to Amazon’s e-commerce margins beginning to benefit from automation investments such as robots, which retail jobs data suggests Amazon is already leveraging. “While robots touching 75% of packages as of 2Q25, assuming AMZN doubles its robotics use from 5% of shipped items to 10% (replacing ~5% of human) represents $7B of incremental cost savings in 2027. We are assuming robots are 90% cheaper than humans once operational given scalable, low incremental costs and fulfill 25% faster at AMZN’s Shreveport, LA facility,” he wrote. Other catalysts for Amazon, Helfstein added, include the expansion of Amazon Prime Now and Prime Fresh services alongside the expansion of original video and new content services. Amazon’s next earnings report, due after market close next Thursday, Feb. 5, could serve as another catalyst. Shares of Amazon have added 3% over the past 12 months. The stock was trading slightly higher in Wednesday’s premarket session after Amazon announced it would lay off about 16,000 corporate workers in an ongoing effort to reduce bureaucracy. This is the company’s second round of mass job cuts since October.
