Amazon prime delivery stock
Amazon missed sales estimates in its Q2 earnings.
Tom Williams/Getty Images
  • Amazon stock's recent underperformance relative to the S&P 500 over the past year could soon be reversed, according to JPMorgan.
  • The bank reiterated its Overweight rating and $4,100 price target for Amazon, a potential upside of 29% from Monday's close.
  • These are the 4 catalysts that could send shares of Amazon higher over the next year.
  • Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.

Amazon stock has been a significant underperformer for investors over the past year, but that trend could be set to change on four key catalysts, JPMorgan said in a note on Tuesday.

The bank reiterated its overweight rating on Amazon and said the stock could surge to $4,100 over the next year, representing potential upside of 29% from Monday's close.

That would help turn around Amazon's stock price, which returned just 4% over the past year, compared a return of 29% for the S&P 500 over the same time period.

But the stock faces a few hurdles it needs to overcome with investors before the uptrend can resume, according to the note.

Those hurdles include a year-end revenue decline due to tough year-over-year comparables and a broader e-commerce slowdown in the US, the impact on inventory from supply-chain disruptions, and an ongoing cycle of higher investments and lower profit margins.

Despite the near-term concerns and uncertainty surrounding Amazon, JPMorgan believes "there is still a significant secular shift toward ecommerce ahead and Amazon has a very strong track record around investing into growth opportunities."

These are the four catalysts JPMorgan identified that could help jumpstart share price performance for Amazon:

  1. "Current caution working its way through the stock and people wanting to own Amazon into the holidays."
  2. "Moving closer to the last quarter of difficult COVID comps in the first quarter of 2022."
  3. "Further downward revisions to 2022 profit estimates that would help lower the bar and potentially create more of a clearing event."
  4. "A potential Prime price increase in 2022."

The bank highlighted that Amazon now trades at less than 15x its below-consensus 2023 EBITDA estimates, and derived its $4,100 2022 price target from a sum-of-the-parts model that values Amazon Web Services at nearly $800 billion.

"We believe the second half of 2021 dislocation [in Amazon shares] creates a compelling opportunity over time," JPMorgan concluded.

Read the original article on Business Insider