By Senad Karaahmetovic
Bernstein analysts weighed in on the e-commerce sector as the Q4 earnings season slowly comes to an end.
The analysts noted the solid performance of this sector year-to-date (YTD), underpinned by positive Ebitda revisions. They noted that stable sales estimates suggest a bottom.
“For 2023, there is some hope that eCommerce growth trends are nearing the bottom, absent a consumer capitulation, though sentiment remains weak,” they wrote in a note.
Adjusted for inflation, eCommerce grew 8.4% year-over-year while overall retail fell 1.7%. As far as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is concerned, retail is “fine” given the uncertain eCommerce environment, they added.
“Most positively, there were greenshoots on the retail margin story as we saw a beat (ex-one time items), and if/when we do get that clean EBIT beat, the stock should react strongly. For now AWS is the issue, not retail,” the analysts added.
Elsewhere, analysts highlighted Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) as a “high-quality business” despite the stock receiving a double downgrade at Jefferies yesterday.