Despite Amazon’s strong year-to-date gains, Wedbush thinks the company’s core segment is underappreciated. The firm added Amazon its “Best Ideas List,” which includes tech peers like Apple and Microsoft. Amazon has surged more than 60% this year, making it one of the best-performing stocks of 2023. The firm attributed the underappreciation to macroeconomic headwinds causing an e-commerce slowdown as well as margin compression. AMZN YTD mountain Amazon has climbed more than 60% the year. Wedbush now, however, thinks Amazon has turned a meaningful corner. “With comp issues fading and capacity utilization rising, Amazon’s core business is now well positioned with an industry-leading fulfillment infrastructure that is delivering 4x as many same-day or next-orders in the U.S. versus 2019 against an improving backdrop for eCommerce as the secular shift online resumes,” the note said. The firm also highlighted the growth of Amazon Web Services, which Wedbush says could accelerate further in 2024 while “a strengthening digital advertising backdrop” will “should support continued growth in the company’s high-margin advertising business.” — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
