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Amazon Stock Slides Friday Amid Concerns About AI Spending, Soft Forecast
Key Takeaways
Amazon ( AMZN ) shares dropped Friday and some analysts lowered their price targets amid concerns about the tech giant's plans to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence and softer-than-expected sales forecast .
CEO Andy Jassy suggested during the company's earnings call Thursday that Amazon expects to spend over $100 billion in capital expenditures this year, most of which is set to go toward building out AI infrastructure to boost capacity.
Analysts have remained largely bullish about the stock's upward trajectory, but some lowered their price targets in the wake of Thursday's earnings call.
Citi analysts, who maintained a "buy" rating for the stock, said an expansion of Amazon's AI infrastructure could help "alleviate capacity constraints” keeping AWS from growing faster. Still, the analysts cut their target for the stock to $273 from $275, noting Amazon's weaker-than-expected sales forecast as well as its spending plans.
JPMorgan analysts said they’re "comfortable” with Amazon's higher spending, “given AMZN’s very clear path to AI monetization through AWS.” However, JPMorgan similarly trimmed its price target to $270 from $280, lowering its net sales estimates for 2025 and 2026.
Amazon's plans to boost spending on AI follow similar moves by several of its Big Tech peers. Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL ) earlier this week said it would spend $75 billion in capital expenditures this year to support expand its AI capacity. Last week, Meta ( META ) said it plans to invest $60 billion to $65 billion this year, and Microsoft ( MSFT ) said it plans to spend $80 billion on infrastructure in its 2025 fiscal year.
The hundreds of billions of dollars spent on AI by Big Tech heavyweights this year “puts an even higher importance on each platform's ability to show material incremental engagement,” Morgan Stanley analysts said. They maintained a $280 price target and "overweight" rating for Amazon stock.
Shares of Amazon dropped about 4% Friday to close at $229.15, though even with Friday's losses, they've gained nearly a third of their value over the past 12 months.
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