Just when it seemed like expectations for Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) couldn’t get any higher, equity research firm D.A. Davidson has set two new price targets for the AMZN stock that represent new high water marks on Wall Street.
On Wednesday, analyst Tom Forte initiated coverage of Amazon with a “buy” rating and set a 12-to-18-month price target of $1,300. In addition, Forte set a five-year price target of $1,800.
According to CNN, both price targets are above any other targets on Wall Street. Of the 37 analysts that currently cover Amazon, the second-highest price target is $1,275, and the median target is $1,150.
The company is a juggernaut, with market capitalization of $470 billion, AMZN stock is up 275 percent in the last five years, and 30 percent since Jan. 1. The company announced Thursday that it would build a second headquarters in North America that would cost $5 billion and employ 50,000 workers.
Forte says Amazon’s retail dominance is just getting started and the company will be at the forefront of the Internet of Things era of retail. Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods Market gives it yet another market to attack and underscores its push toward an omni-channel sales model, Forte says.
“Now that Amazon has fully embraced physical stores, with the August acquisition of Whole Foods, it is poised to take even more market share in the retail sector,” he writes. “We expect the company to continue to ramp its use of physical stores to maximize its revenue with, at the minimum, the addition of more book stores and using every square foot of its Whole Foods locations (including to advance its proprietary hardware efforts and provide consumers another commercial location to receive and return online purchases).”
On Wednesday, Loop Capital Markets analyst Andrew Wolf said Amazon is going directly after Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) with its aggressive Whole Foods price cuts.
“Based on our conversations at the stores, it appears that Walmart store management views Amazon as the primary market share competitor for most general merchandise categories,” Wolf writes. “Our store checks reaffirmed…
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