By Sam Boughedda
Morgan Stanley analysts said in a research note on Wednesday that the firm remains bullish on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which remains the firm's Top Pick.
The analysts have an Overweight rating and a $150 price target on the stock.
The analysts addressed some of the key points currently being debated regarding the company.
When answering the question about how profitable North American retail could become for the firm into 2024, they told investors that in their view, "the slope of AMZN's Retail EBIT improvement is likely to continue to be driven by improving fulfillment and shipping cost per unit economics as AMZN grows into its logistics overbuild."
"Our assumptions for a slower forward pace of incremental shipping/fulfillment efficiencies vs 2022 lead us to reach 4% North America GAAP EBIT margins by 4Q:23 (up 140bp from 4Q:22). Looking to '24, we model North America EBIT margins at 3.6% for the full year, reaching ~4.5% by 4Q:24," they added.
On AWS revenue growth bottoming, the analysts stated that predicting the slope and bottom of growth within the cloud sector and AWS remains challenging given the multiple moving factors.
However, they explained that using the firm's monthly AWS model, they now estimate that "AWS revenue will trough in the mid-single digit y/y growth range by end of 2Q, early 3Q... before accelerating modestly in 4Q."
"Looking to '24, we model AWS to grow ~19% Y/Y," continued the analysts.
The analysts went on to state that Morgan Stanley sees a 15%+ upward EBIT revision ahead for Amazon.