Amazon Jumps as Morgan Stanley Names It a Top Pick on AWS Growth

Amazon shares rose nearly 5% on Monday, closing at $262.45 after Morgan Stanley reiterated the company as a top pick and raised its price target on the stock. The move, up from Friday’s close of $250, followed the bank’s argument that growth at Amazon’s cloud division is set to speed up. Trading was busy. Volume ran about 1.6 times the stock’s recent daily average.

Morgan Stanley lifts its target to $350

Analyst Brian Nowak kept an overweight rating and raised his price target to $350 from $335. The core of the call is Amazon Web Services. Nowak told clients he expects AWS revenue to grow 47% in 2027, up from an earlier estimate of 41%, and he described the division’s runway as underappreciated. He tied that view to demand for artificial-intelligence computing, where Amazon is adding capacity to serve corporate customers running AI workloads on rented servers. The bank’s view rests on companies buying more computing power from AWS to train and run AI models, demand the note argues is still in its early innings. That is the engine Morgan Stanley expects to drive both revenue and profit higher.

The note reached beyond the cloud. Nowak pointed to Amazon’s advertising business, to generative and so-called agentic AI tools, and to robotics in the company’s warehouses as further sources of profit growth through 2027. Morgan Stanley framed its target as a bet that those lines compound over the next two years. The firm’s work implied meaningful upside from where the stock traded Monday.

A gain that still trails the summer peak

Even after Monday’s advance, Amazon sits about 8% below its 90-day high of $284.02. The stock is up 3% over the past 30 days and holds near 16% above its 90-day low of $226.65. At Monday’s close, the shares sat in the upper half of that three-month range, still short of the summer peak. This was a recovery. The day’s buying retraced recent ground rather than breaking new, on volume near 1.6 times the 20-day average that pointed to real conviction behind the move.

The rally fit a steadier tone across large technology stocks, which had come through a bruising stretch earlier in the month as investors questioned how much of the AI buildout is running on borrowed money. A single analyst note does not reverse that debate. It did give buyers of one of the market’s largest names a reason to step back in.

Earnings land October 29

Amazon is scheduled to report third-quarter results on October 29, with a conference call set to begin at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. The date is set. That report will test the heart of Morgan Stanley’s thesis, from whether AWS growth is in fact quickening to how fast corporate AI demand is converting into cloud revenue. Investors will also watch what the company says about spending, since Amazon has signaled heavy capital outlays to build out AI capacity, and the market has leaned hard on big spenders across technology this fall. The numbers will settle the question the upgrade only frames.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.