Nasdaq AMZN Amazon

Cybersecurity is a top priority for companies. It has to be, with an estimated 500 million cyberattacks worldwide last year. Endpoints (anything that connects to a network, such as laptops, desktops, and cellphones) are the source of 90% of successful attacks, according to IBM. T

Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) stock managed an impressive turnaround from last year's sell-off. In 2022, its share price plunged 55% as macroeconomic headwinds caused reductions in consumer spending across the tech market. In 2023, AMD shares are up 57%, mainly driven by e

There's been a slight sell-off in the tech market, with the Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector index dipping almost 10% since the start of August. A looming recession has Wall Street concerned that companies may suffer slower-than-normal sales over the coming holiday season and into 20

Asian equities rose slightly on Tuesday, to stand just off their lowest since November 2022, while the dollar eased as traders avoided bets ahead of economic data expected to offer clues to the next steps by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

For Immediate ReleaseChicago, IL – October 24, 2023 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the fi

For Immediate ReleaseChicago, IL – October 24, 2023 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the fi

For Immediate ReleaseChicago, IL – October 24, 2023 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the fi

Asian equities slipped to their lowest in more than 11 months on Tuesday, while the dollar wobbled in cautious trading ahead of a slew of economic data that will provide clues to the next steps from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Recent months have seen increased volatility in the stock markets, as both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ have given back some of the gains they posted earlier in the year. Stocks are coming under pressure from a variety of headwinds – but one that stands out recently comes from the bond market. Treasury bond yields and stocks tend to move in opposite directions, and earlier today the 10-year treasury bond rose to a peak of 5.02%, its highest level since July 2007. The yield was as low as 3.3% as recently as this past April, and has been rising steadily ever since. Contrarian market expert Jim Cramer has been watching current conditions, and he sees the ‘Magnificent Seven,’ the seven largest stocks in the S&P 500, as the ultimate defensive plays in this environment. "We’re in an unusual situation, but skyrocketing bond yields are bad news for the vast bulk of the market. The mega-cap techs are the one big exception. You want to make it through this difficult moment? You need the Magnificent Seven, and then the rest,” Cramer opined. With this in mind, we used the TipRanks database to pull up the details on two of these ‘Magnificent Seven' stocks to find out what makes them compelling buys. According to the platform, both have received plenty of love from Wall Street analysts, earning a 'Strong Buy' consensus rating and are projected to have up to 155% upside potential for the year ahead. Nvidia Corporation ( NVDA) We’ll start with the semiconductor chip giant Nvidia. This is a well-known name, a leader in the chip markets whose products, particularly the high-end GPUs, are in high demand for AI applications, data centers, and high-end gaming. Since last November when ChatGPT woke everyone up to the potentialities of AI, Nvidia has seen that demand rise and continue to rise; the stock is up an impressive 194% since the beginning of this year, and Nvidia boasts a market cap of $1.06 trillion. The company’s success has been powered by strong growth in its AI-related products. Nvidia has, since 2020, been a leader in the supply of GPU chips to OpenAI, the Microsoft-supported firm behind ChatGPT. OpenAI, already a heavy buyer of Nvidia chips, has said it will require as many as 10,000 new GPU chips heading into 2024, in order to maintain the chatbot’s performance parameters. Having a ready customer with high demand has given a boost to Nvidia’s revenues and earnings in recent months. That can be readily seen in the chip company’s most recent quarterly earnings report, from fiscal 2Q24. For that quarter, Nvidia reported $13.5 billion in quarterly revenue – a result that was a company record, a 101% year-over-year gain, and was $2.43 billion ahead of the forecasts. The company’s bottom line, reported in non-GAAP measures, came to $2.70 per diluted share, beating the estimates by 61 cents per share. The results were driven by solid performance in the AI-adjacent data center segment, which was up 171% y/y to reach $10.32 billion in total revenue. The Street’s analysts are anticipating more gains for Nvidia next month when it reports its fiscal Q3 earnings. The forecast for revenue is $15.89 billion, and the outlook for the non-GAAP EPS is $3.36 per share. For 5-star analyst Hans Mosesmann, from Rosenblatt Securities, the company’s AI and data center exposure are key supports. He writes of the stock, “NVDA remains our top conviction idea... With data center and AI inferencing opportunities massive and most of the $1 trillion server market shifting to accelerated computing, NVDA is poised for multi-year growth as supply expands. New platforms like Hopper, L40S, and Grace-Hopper will drive further inflections... NVDA’s unmatched software capabilities and exposure to secular AI and data center tailwinds reinforce its position as a top secular grower even amidst competition.” For Mosesmann, this adds up to a Buy rating on the share, and his Street-high $1,100 price target implies that a robust one-year gain of ~155% lies on the horizon for Nvidia. (To watch Mosesmann’s track record, click here) Overall, the Strong Buy consensus on NVDA is based on 38 recent analyst reviews – and they are nearly unanimous, with 37 Buys against a single Hold. The shares have a selling price of $429.75 and their average price target, at $645.53, suggests a 12-month upside potential of 50%. (See Nvidia stock forecast ) Amazon ( AMZN) The next mega-cap tech firm we’ll look at is Amazon, one of the world’s truly iconic brands. Amazon’s ubiquitous smile logo has become synonymous with rapid delivery, as the company has cemented its position over the past decade as the world leader in e-commerce and online retail. Amazon survived the dot.com bubble more than 20 years ago and has built on that, remaking itself as the one-stop-shop for everything online. Today, Amazon boasts a market cap of $1.29 trillion, and its online retail activity saw approximately $690 billion in gross merchandise volume last year. Amazon’s online retail service may be the 800-pound gorilla in the room, but the company’s other divisions give it a depth and breadth that can insulate the company from most shocks. Amazon Web Services is a major player in the cloud computing world, and the company’s AI-powered technology products show tremendous promise; these include AWS, which the company is working to integrate with AI, and other AI products include a software code development tool, an image-building platform, and a chatbot. Amazon clearly has the resources to develop all of these avenues simultaneously; the company’s cash holdings may have declined by 8% from the end of 2022 to the end of 2Q23, but it still had $49.5 billion in liquid assets on hand at the end of Q2. In other Q2 metrics, Amazon reported sky-high revenue of $134.4 billion, a figure that was up 11% year over year and came in $3 billion better than expectations. The firm’s bottom line, at 65 cents per share, was 31 cents ahead of estimates. Amazon’s Q2 earnings showed a benefit from a non-operating expense gain in the company’s Rivian equity holdings, where the prior year’s equivalent figure had been a loss of $3.9 billion. Amazon will report its Q3 results later this week, and analysts are looking to see a 59-cent EPS based on $141.6 billion in revenues. Among the bulls is Evercore analyst Greg Melich who believes that Amazon is a go-to story for investors, and outlines why: “We are keeping AMZN on our Tactical Outperform list, and AMZN remains our #2 pick among Large Cap ‘Nets... We believe the AMZN Long Thesis is very well intact. AMZN still faces several very large $T TAMs; benefits from a very positive mix shift to faster growth/higher margin AWS and Ads revenue streams; has very strong competitive positions in Retail, Cloud & Advertising; has a very powerful business model in terms of Growth & FCF generation; and has a very competent management team. Among our coverage space, AMZN is arguably the strongest, most successfully diversified company.” To this end, Melich rates AMZN an Outperform (i.e. Buy), with a $190 price target that indicates his confidence in a 50% potential gain heading into next year. (To watch Melich’s track record, click here) Overall, this behemoth of a company has picked up no fewer than 42 recent analyst reviews; their lopsided 41 to 1 split in favor of Buys over Holds gives AMZN its Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares have an average price target of $175.38, implying an upside of ~38%. (See Amazon stock forecast ) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’  Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

Markets closed down back where they traded earlier in the pre-market session — with the exception of the Nasdaq, which closed higher for the day. The self-policing of high-bond-yield wariness is keeping equities from jumping ahead

Earnings season is in full swing, and this week is packed with market leading reports. Google parent company Alphabet GOOGL reports earnings Tuesday, October 24 after the market closes.

Amazon ( NASDAQ:AMZN ) is scheduled to announce its Q3 results after Thursday’s (October 26) closing bell. The tech giant currently operates amid a challenging macro economy as it wrestles with lower consumer and enterprise spending, inflation, and rising interest rates. Despite these near-term headwinds, though, I remain bullish on Amazon stock due to its leadership position in several business segments, widening profit margins, and expanding addressable market. Considering these factors, let’s see how Amazon is expected to perform in the September quarter. Amazon Forecast to Report Revenue of $141.59B, High EPS Growth According to Wall Street, Amazon is forecast to report revenue of $141.59 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $0.58. In the year-ago quarter, the tech giant reported revenue of $127.1 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.28 per share. So, analysts expect sales to grow by 11% and earnings to more than double in Q3 of 2023. E-Commerce Sales Could Grow by 6% in Q3 The largest business segment for Amazon is Online Stores. This segment is forecast to grow by 6% to $56.84 billion, accounting for ~40% of total sales. Amazon is the largest e-commerce company in the world, and e-commerce remains a key driver of top-line growth for the company. Currently, online spending contributes to 15.4% of total retail sales in the U.S., and this number is much lower in other developing economies, providing Amazon with enough runway for expansion in the upcoming decade. Amazon enjoys a competitive moat due to its enormous global footprint and wide network of fulfillment centers and warehouses, which allows it to keep delivery costs low and ensure the timely shipment of products. Will Amazon Web Services Maintain Its Stellar Growth Rate? Amazon is also the largest public cloud company in the world. In the June quarter, Amazon increased AWS sales by 12% to $22.1 billion, a significantly lower growth rate than in recent years due to cautious spending by enterprises. AWS has a market share of 32%, and the public cloud market is forecast to touch $1.6 trillion by 2030, according to IndustryARC. If AWS can maintain its market share, its cloud sales should surpass $510 billion by the turn of this decade. AWS is the primary driver of Amazon's bottom line, with an operating margin of 24.7% in the last 12 months. Amazon Ads -- A Key Driver of Sales Amazon’s Advertising segment is expected to be the company’s fastest-growing business. In fact, Amazon is the third-largest digital ad platform in the world after Alphabet’s ( NASDAQ:GOOGL )( NASDAQ:GOOG ) Google and Meta’s ( NASDAQ:META ) Facebook. While Alphabet and Meta have been wrestling with tepid ad sales in the last 18 months, Amazon is quickly gaining market share as the platform provides advertisers with a customer base that has a much higher purchase intent. According to a report from InsiderIntelligence, Amazon accounted for 10.3% of the digital ad market in the U.S. in 2020. Comparatively, Alphabet and Meta had shares of 28.9% and 25.2%, respectively. This year, Amazon has a 12.9% market share. Looking forward, InsiderIntelligence expects Amazon’s ad revenue to touch $34 billion by 2024, accounting for 14.6% of the total market. The digital ad market is forecast to reach $315 billion by 2025. If Amazon can end the year with a 15% market share, its ad sales could surpass $47 billion in the next two years. Amazon Focuses on Cost-Cutting Amazon ramped up capital spending during COVID-19 to keep up with an increase in demand. However, as economies reopened and online spending reduced, Amazon’s free cash flows took a massive hit. For example, Amazon reported a free cash outflow of $11.6 billion in 2022 compared to an inflow of $31 billion in 2020. As a result, Amazon focused on lowering its cost base to boost profit margins. It reduced capital expenditures by 10% year-over-year in the last four quarters. Moreover, Amazon also reduced its employee count on the back of corporate layoffs and restructuring. Amazon’s cost savings efforts should allow the company to end 2023 with adjusted earnings of $2.16 per share, according to analysts, compared to a loss of $0.27 per share in 2022. Is AMZN Stock a Buy, According to Analysts? Out of the 42 analysts covering AMZN stock, 41 recommend a Buy, and one recommends a Hold. The average Amazon stock price target is $175.38, which is 38.6% above current prices. The Final Takeaway Amazon is a mega-cap, big-tech company that continues to fire on all cylinders. Despite its massive size, Amazon is growing sales and its profit margins at an enviable pace. The company reported an operating margin of just 2.4% in 2022. But in the last quarter, its operating margin more than doubled to 5.7%. Additionally, its diverse business segments and leadership position enable the firm to withstand major economic downturns and deliver outsized gains over time. Disclosure

The NASDAQ 100 After Hours Indicator is up 26.58 to 14,631.43. The total After hours volume is currently 111,236,825 shares traded.The following are the most active stocks for the after hours session: Roivant Sciences Ltd. (ROIV) is +0.085 at $8.68, with 4,118,052 shares traded.

U.S. stocks wavered to a mixed close on Monday as benchmark U.S. Treasury yields backed down from 5% and investors shifted their focus to this week's high profile earnings and closely watched economic data.

Wall Street stocks closed mixed on Monday as benchmark U.S. Treasury yields backed down from 5% and investors shifted their focus to this week's high profile earnings and closely watched economic data.

Inflation numbers are turning out to be more stubborn than most investors thought, and in turn, the US Federal Reserve is keeping its “Hawkish” stance, meaning higher rates for longer. Meanwhile, the War in Ukraine drags on, while

Global hedge funds reduced their exposure to mega cap tech stocks in recent days, ahead of the companies' third-quarter earnings, two Wall Street banks said.

Wall Street stocks edged higher on Monday as benchmark U.S. Treasury yields backed down from 5% and investors shifted their focus to this week's high profile earnings and closely watched economic data.

The benchmark U.S. Treasury yield pulled back after crossing 5%, a 16-year high, on Monday, helping stocks rebound slightly, as oil slipped on continued turmoil around the Israel and Hamas conflict.

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