Roth Capital this week raised its rating on Amazon to Buy, increasing its 12-month target from $270 to $295 based on accelerating AWS growth and an expanded advertising business. The firm cited Amazon’s market capitalization of roughly $2.56 trillion and daily volume of around 33.8 million shares as evidence of deep liquidity and institutional interest. Despite a recent social media sentiment score slipping into negative territory, Roth argued that investors are underestimating the company’s long-term cloud computing and e-commerce synergies.

In its third quarter, Amazon reported year-over-year revenue growth of 13.4 percent, bringing quarterly sales to approximately $180 billion. Gross margin expanded to 50.8 percent, driven by a 20 percent increase in AWS revenue and double-digit growth in digital advertising. Net income rose 38 percent to $21.1 billion, though analysts noted that roughly half of that gain stemmed from one-time investment returns. Management emphasized that ongoing capital expenditures—up 55 percent to $35.1 billion—are aimed squarely at AI infrastructure to sustain future operating income growth.

Retail sentiment has turned skeptical, with Amazon’s social sentiment score falling from a neutral 0.12 to –0.15 on platforms such as Reddit and X over the past week. A viral post highlighting a new round of 30,000 layoffs across AWS, retail, Prime Video and HR triggered more than 2,700 upvotes and 400 comments, reflecting anxiety over the company’s $35 billion AI spending and workforce reductions. Investors worry that structural cost cuts may undermine the growth narrative, even as 95 percent of Wall Street analysts maintain Buy ratings based on the company’s multi-year AI investment roadmap.