The holiday season is time for gift buying, spending quality time with family, and clearing snow from driveways in the colder parts of the world. It’s also time for “best of” lists across a wealth of disciplines, stock market punditry included.
On Tuesday, one such pundit — Bernstein Research — named its “Best Idea for 2024” among all stocks, and the winner was Amazon (AMZN 1.41%). The giant retailer’s stock bumped higher on the news, although not by much. Yet perhaps Bernstein’s powerful optimism is justified, and the shares have more room to run.
Bernstein believes Amazon is the best
In tagging Amazon as its No. 1 pick for the coming year, Bernstein reiterated its (no surprise) buy recommendation on the stock at a $175 per-share price target.
This is hardly the first time the ever-ambitious Amazon has made the top of a pundit’s list, and it’s unlikely to be the last.
The company feels unstoppable these days, with its distinctive retail delivery trucks being a common sight on American roads no matter how sparsely or generously populated the locale. Its Prime membership offering is almost a requirement for anyone who wants to get goods delivered quickly, and the company smartly keeps adding features to the service to keep participants interested.
Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the company’s secret weapon. This highly popular web hosting and affiliated services unit is quite the motor of Amazon’s growth. An increasingly connected world requires such offerings to function, so as long as the company doesn’t drop the ball AWS should continue to be its rock.
Top- and bottom-line improvements coming, analysts believe
Collectively, the many analysts tracking Amazon stock are expecting the company to flip to a bottom-line profit this year, on the back of double-digit (11%) revenue growth over 2022. That rate should be similar for 2024, accompanied by anticipated — and very strong — 33% improvement in per-share profitability.
It’s impressive when an already-established (and large) business is poised to grow so handsomely. Amazon certainly seems as if it’s still well in buy territory.
John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
