Amazon shares closed up 4.98% on October 19 after Morgan Stanley named the stock a top pick and raised its target to $350. The bank points to AI-driven growth at AWS, while investors look ahead to Amazon's October 29 earnings report.
Amazon.com closed at $262.45, up 4.98%, after Morgan Stanley's top-pick call and higher price target lifted the shares. Investors are now watching Amazon Web Services (AWS) growth ahead of the company's October 29 earnings report.
Trading volume reached 54.5 million shares, about 4% above the three-month average of 38.9 million shares.
Morgan Stanley lifts its target to $350
On Monday, October 19, Morgan Stanley named Amazon a top pick, kept an Overweight rating, and lifted its target to $350 from $335. A key driver behind the higher price target is the artificial intelligence boom.
The bank noted five key catalysts for Amazon's stock, including AWS growth nearly tripling from 2025 to 2028 as customers increasingly adopt AI. The others are greater AWS profits, Amazon's Bedrock AI platform, AI-powered shopping, and robotics.
AWS growth and regulatory risk
AWS's second-quarter revenue rose 37% year over year to $42.2 billion, the fastest growth in 18 quarters. Wall Street investors will expect another quarter of strong performance when Amazon reports Q3 2026 earnings on October 29, although litigation and regulatory risk remain a longer-term overhang on valuation.
Two weeks ago, a UK competition watchdog said AWS and Microsoft should do more to address barriers to switching cloud providers, a reminder that regulation can affect margins.
Source: The Motley Fool
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