Scotiabank on Friday lowered its price target on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) to $275.00 from $300.00, while maintaining a Sector Outperform rating on the e-commerce and cloud computing company. The revised target still implies meaningful upside relative to Amazon’s most recent trading level of $222.69, and InvestingPro data indicates the share price may be trading below its Fair Value assessment.
The bank’s adjustment comes in the wake of Amazon’s latest quarterly report, which showed Amazon Web Services - AWS - accelerating to 24% growth. Despite that faster cloud expansion, Amazon’s shares slid nearly 10% in after-hours trading following the announcement.
Amazon remains a very large company, carrying a market capitalization of about $2.38 trillion and reporting overall revenue growth of 12.38% over the last twelve months. Yet Scotiabank highlighted a set of issues it says have weighed on the stock: notably, the company’s elevated capital expenditure guidance of approximately $200 billion for 2026 - up from $125 billion in 2025 - along with weak reported EBIT and underwhelming international margins.
On the balance sheet, InvestingPro data referenced by Scotiabank shows Amazon with a moderate level of debt and an overall Financial Health score classified as GOOD, suggesting the firm retains a healthy financial position despite the planned spending increase.
Scotiabank warned that investors may need to recalibrate expectations around Amazon’s efficiency narrative. The bank noted that even with robust AWS growth, that factor alone may not be enough to generate positive near-term share-price momentum while markets digest the implications of the stepped-up capex plan.
In its commentary, Scotiabank also suggested that some investors could continue to use Amazon - alongside Meta - as sources of liquidity for short positions financing bets against Alphabet, indicating a strategic repositioning among market participants.
While expressing a constructive view over the longer term, Scotiabank cautioned about potential "short-term pain" as analysts incorporate the heavy capital expenditure into models for 2026 results.
Other broker actions following Amazon’s results and guidance have illustrated a mixed analyst response. Evercore ISI lowered its price target to $285 while keeping an Outperform rating. UBS trimmed its target to $301 and maintained a Buy recommendation. Susquehanna reiterated a Positive rating with a $300 price target, citing strong demand for AWS and describing Amazon as a "long-term secular grower."
Canaccord Genuity kept its Buy recommendation, pointing to AWS growth that accelerated by roughly 400 basis points quarter-over-quarter. By contrast, DA Davidson downgraded Amazon from Buy to Neutral and reduced its price target to $175, expressing concern that AWS could be losing competitive ground to Microsoft and Google.
These developments underscore a spectrum of analyst views - from continued confidence in Amazon’s secular growth drivers to guardedness about margin pressure, capital intensity and competitive dynamics in cloud.
Key takeaways:
- Scotiabank cut Amazon’s price target to $275 but retained a Sector Outperform rating.
- Amazon reported AWS growth of 24% and overall revenue growth of 12.38% year-over-year, yet shares fell nearly 10% after hours.
- The company raised 2026 capital expenditure guidance to about $200 billion, up from $125 billion in 2025, prompting multiple analysts to update targets and ratings.
Analysts remain divided - some firms trimmed price targets but kept positive ratings, while others downgraded the stock amid concerns about competitiveness and margin risk.