Shares rose to their highest level in more than two months on Friday after a research firm predicted that the world’s largest e-commerce giant Amazon’s retail business in North America would beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
Shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose 3.77% to $107.725, their highest since Feb. 3, bringing the Seattle company’s stock market value to $1.1 trillion.
According to data emailed to Reuters by research firm YipitData, Amazon’s March quarter net sales in North America are expected to beat analysts’ expectations, and April sales are also trending higher than Wall Street’s second quarter consensus.
North American net sales account for more than half of Amazon’s total sales, with overseas and Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounting for the remainder.
While Amazon is due to report first-quarter results next Thursday, Analysts expect that, on average, the company’s North American net sales increased 8.5% year-over-year to $75.2 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
New York-based eFitData aggregates and analyzes data that tracks the behavior of millions of US consumers, including email receipts, online transactions, app data and web traffic.
E-commerce trends were likely “quiet” in the first quarter as economic uncertainty affected consumer spending, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) analyst Dough Anmuth said in a research note on Friday.
However, Anmus said he expects e-commerce to penetrate deeper into grocery, appliances and other categories, reaping more benefits than traditional retailers. He kept Amazon’s stock as “the best idea.”
Also on Thursday, Amazon won a private lawsuit in federal court in Seattle accusing it of violating US antitrust laws by curbing competition for its delivery and fulfillment services, forcing consumers to pay more for their purchases.
Friday’s rise has seen Amazon recover more than 30% from its December lows. It is down 42% from its all-time high in July 2021.