Amazon’s (AMZN) stock is sucking wind into 2023 as investors fret about still-bloated costs and what is shaping up to be a disappointing holiday shopping season.
Shares of the tech giant are now hovering at a fresh 52-week low and down 50.3% year to date, according to Yahoo Finance data. The stock is rivaling dreadful performances from its partners in the closely followed FAANG (Facebook/Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) complex, as Meta Platforms (META) has suffered a 63% drop and Netflix (NFLX) has plunged about 53%.
The stock has shed about 12% in December alone, pressured more recently by a lackluster government retail sales report for November.
“Consistent with our recently published 2023 uutlook report, we are lowering our estimates and price target on Amazon in the wake of several proprietary datapoints that suggest ongoing softness in online retail and cloud computing demand,” EvercoreISI tech analyst Mark Mahaney warned in a client note this week. “We have cut our 2023 and 2024 revenue estimates by 4% & 5%, and our 2023 & 2024 operating Income estimates by 9% & 8% and are now below the Street.”
Not helping sentiment on Amazon is its own operating performance coming into the peak holiday season.
Amazon announced on Oct. 27 it missed third-quarter analyst estimates, as top-line growth continued to cool and costs remained elevated. For the fourth quarter, Amazon guided to between $140 billion and $144 billion instead of the $155 billion then projected by analysts.
Shares were hammered by nearly 10% the following day.
In November, Amazon then reportedly began laying off around 10,000 workers in an effort to get its cost structure under control.
Mahaney’s peers on the Street also have a cautious short-term view on Amazon.
“We believe that Amazon has the most downside in our mega-cap coverage given its exposure to inflationary cost headwinds and a potential impact from slowing consumption,” Jefferies tech analyst Brent Thill wore in a note to clients.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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