Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) said it intended to double the number of workers hired for this year’s holiday shopping season to 200 000, after the e-commerce giant has opened more warehouses, sortation hubs as well as delivery stations.
Amazon shares closed higher for a fourth consecutive trading session on NASDAQ on Wednesday. The stock went up 1.20% ($21.57) to $1,818.51, after touching an intraday high at $1,824.29, or a price level not seen since September 20th ($1,830.63).
Shares of Amazon.com Inc have risen 21.07% so far in 2019 compared with a 25.80% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).
In 2018, Amazon’s stock went up 28.43%, thus, it outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 6.24% loss.
Amazon’s competitors in the retail industry such as Target Corp had announced plans to hire 4% more seasonal workers this year compared to 2018, or about 130 000 people. At the same time, Kohl’s had said it would hire about 90 000 workers for the upcoming holiday shopping season, or matching the number of hires from a year ago.
In 2018, nearly 19 000 Amazon workers, engaged in order packing and shipping, were promoted to manager or supervisor roles, the company said.
In other news, according to a report by Reuters, citing sources, Amazon Web Services has developed a second, more powerful generation of data center processor chip by utilizing technology from SoftBank Group-owned semiconductor and software design company, Arm Holdings.
According to the sources, the new chip is expected to be at least 20% more powerful than Graviton, AWS’s first chip based on Arm technology and released in 2018.
Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation
According to CNN Money, the 45 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Amazon.com Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $2,180.00, with a high estimate of $2,573.40 and a low estimate of $1,850.00. The median estimate represents a 19.88% upside compared to the closing price of $1,818.51 on November 27th.
The same media also reported that at least 42 out of 48 surveyed investment analysts had rated Amazon.com Inc’s stock as “Buy”, while 2 – as “Hold”.
TradingPedia.com is a financial media specialized in providing daily news and education covering Forex, equities and commodities. Our academies for traders cover 
