Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) Stock: Bullish Forecast for 2014

On Friday, Topeka Capital Markets upgraded its price target on Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) stock to $485.00 per share, another boost for the company that seems to do no wrong of late. The share-price target indicates potential upside of 23.21% from Amazon stock's present value of $396 per share.

Analysts at Citigroup Inc. also raised their price target from $381.00 to $457.00 per share in a Dec. 30 research note to investors. Analysts wrote they believed AMZN had a strong Q4 and that the company's momentum in online retail and cloud computing services will continue into 2014.

The price targets join a handful of bullish AMZN evaluations. Currently, two analysts have assigned Amazon stock a "Strong Buy" rating, and 27 have given it a "Buy" rating. That compares to the nine "Hold" ratings and one "Sell." This gives Amazon a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $389.76.

One reason for the bullish forecasts: Analysts are projecting earnings growth of 233% in 2014, compared to 167% earnings growth in 2013.

And the numbers that support investing in AMZN don't end there...

Yesterday (Tuesday), tech-driven customer experience analytics company ForeSee released an index that ranks customer experience excellence in the cutthroat 2013 holiday shopping season.

The index is comprised of more than 67,600 surveys collected between Nov. 29 and Dec. 17 for the 100 largest U.S. retailers, as reported by the Fortune 500 and Internet Retailers' top 100 websites.

Amazon.com landed top honors, tying with outdoor apparel outfitter L.L. Bean. (Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) received the lowest rating.)

Rave customer ratings helped propel Amazon stock up a whopping 62% in 2013.

And the good news is it's not too late for investors to capture profits during AMZN's ride to the top.

That's because of these major forces that will push the online retail giant's numbers even higher in 2014...

The Forces Driving Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) Stock

Amazon is one of the world's largest online retailers, but it also creates original media content in its publishing division, offers cloud computing services, and sells products like the popular Kindle.

"Popular" is an understatement.

On Dec. 26, Amazon announced it sold 426 items per second on 2013's Cyber Monday, including more Kindles than ever before in the company's history. That math comes out to more than 36.8 million items ordered in 24 hours.

Another major reason for AMZN's success: Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime is a membership service that offers free two-day shipping, unlimited movie streaming, and one free borrowed e-book per month for a total of $79 per year. In just one week in December, Amazon Prime gained more than 1 million new subscribers.

Additionally, last month we learned that AMZN will launch Pantry, a membership warehouse that allows members to buy consumer package goods. Pantry opens the gateway for Amazon to compete with Costco Wholesale Corp. (Nasdaq: COST), Sam's Club, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

Money Morning Defense & Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson had good things to say about Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos: "[He] is going to go down in history as one of the great tech innovators of all time."

And with regard to Amazon's Pantry venture, Robinson believes Bezos is "brilliant at logistics," and developing Pantry fits right in that wheelhouse.

Watch the video to see why Robinson thinks investors can still take advantage of huge AMZN stock gains as he breaks down the growth opportunities in Amazon's future:

 


Amazon stock opened today at $397.83 per share and is presently trading a fraction higher (0.02%).

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