Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been producing some headlines over the last month or so, and that seems to generate some excitement and enthusiasm around the company’s quarterly earnings report, which is due Wednesday of this week. One analyst has upgraded its outlook and raise its price target, and Amazon made some more news recently by buying a Europe-based txt-to-speech technology company – which may suggest the genesis of new products that could challenge some tech rivals.
First, a recent article looked a little deeper into the recent acquisition of Poland-based Ivona Software by Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Ivona is a text-to-speech specialist firm that develops the technology for significant numbers of businesses, customers and developers. While there is no official word of how much Amazon spent for the purchase – light may be shed on this Wednesday during the earnings call – this purchase may fan more rumors that have swirled about the online retailer moving into more direct competition with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by producing its own smartphone. At the very least, though, this might be a step toward improving the audio e-books for Kindle owners. But that would seem to innocuous for the company to put forth so much money to buy a company, when Amazon may be perfectly capable of developing and improving its own capability.
While there is no indication that the purchase of Ivona has any impact, Piper Jaffray posted a research note Monday that reiterated the company’s Overweight rating, but raised its price target on the stock from $297 to $329 per share.
As of 1 p.m. ET Monday, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was down about 2.5 percent on the day to about $276.50 per share. What did Piper Jaffray have to say in its research note that generated such a change in its price target?
In its note about Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Piper Jaffray wrote that it expects the company to report revenue in line with Wall Street consensus expectations of $22.3 billion for the quarter and an EPS of 10 cents, which is below consensus of 28 cents but above Piper’s own projection of minus-16 cents. Also, the firm said it expects Amazon to give guidance for the current quarter that may be 3-6 percent below Wall Street expectations, and that Amazon has historically guided about 4 percent below consensus the last five quarters – and ends up beating that guidance. “We reiterate our Overweight rating on shares of AMZN and raise our price target to $329 given the company’s roadmap to dominate global eCommerce over the next decade” Piper Jaffray wrote.
What are your thoughts about this purchase of Ivona? Does this imply anything for Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)? What do you expect from the company’s earnings report this week? We’d like your thoughts about this in the comments section below.
DISCLOSURE: I own no positions in any stock mentioned.
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