Amazon shares on Wednesday were up about 4% to nearly $194 as of 2 p.m. ET, pushing the Seattle-based retail giant’s market cap above $2 trillion for the first time.
A Bank of America note to investors published on Tuesday, which reiterated a buy rating on Amazon’s shares, projects the retailer to deliver more than 9 billion packages globally in 2024. Amazon “could now be the largest U.S. shipper, ahead of UPS,” analysts wrote. “Delivery speed is also dramatically improved, with nearly 25% of estimated units now delivered same or next day.”
Bank of America raised its price target for Amazon shares to $220 from $210.
Amazon this year is up nearly 30%—and over the previous 12 months up almost 50%.
‘Runway ahead’
The ubiquitous retailer has cut costs and restructured “to better take advantage of the AI frenzy”; meanwhile Amazon Web Services “has shown signs of re-accelerating growth, a major point of optimism for investors,” Bloomberg reported. And while Amazon may remain below its remarkable efficiency levels attained in 2018, according to BofA, it exceeded expectations in the first quarter, and there’s still “runway ahead for efficiency gains.”
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, hit $2 trillion earlier in 2024. Both firms still trail Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia, all of which are worth north of $3 trillion.
Tech firms, especially Nvidia, have carried the S&P 500 for much of 2024, with one analyst telling Fortune‘s Niamh Rowe that the chipmaker’s recent dominance was “unheard of,” comparing it to when IBM began producing PCs nearly four decades ago.