Morgan Stanley’s top analyst, Brian Nowak, has increased the price target for Amazon stock (AMZN) by 20%, raising it to $300 from $250, while maintaining his Buy rating. The revised price target implies nearly 35% upside potential from current levels. The analyst cited an improving macroeconomic backdrop and a manageable tariff situation as the main drivers of his bullish outlook. In mid-April, Nowak had slashed the price target on AMZN stock due to uncertainty surrounding the U.S.-China trade deal.

Nowak ranks #788 out of the 9,867 analysts tracked on TipRanks. He boasts a 61% success rate and an average return per rating of 7.10%. Interestingly, Nowak has achieved even better results with his AMZN recommendations to date, recording a 79% success rate and an average return per rating of 24.33%.

Nowak believes that the tariff environment has become “more manageable” as trade deals between the U.S., China, and several other countries have been reached. Additionally, the analyst is highly optimistic about the growth potential of Amazon Web Services (AWS), backed by its rapid adoption.

It is worth noting that Amazon is strengthening its partnership with the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, which could further bolster its performance. Notably, Anthropic uses AWS as its primary cloud provider, and AWS customers gain access to Anthropic’s advanced AI models. Anthropic is one of the biggest challengers to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, with its Claude models attracting increased adoption due to their powerful multimodal capabilities.

At the same time, AWS faces strong competition from Microsoft’s (MSFT) cloud computing platform, Azure, which is also accelerating its generative AI offerings. Nonetheless, Nowak noted that AWS is better positioned to compete as growing AI demand drives more business to cloud providers. Finally, Nowak mentioned that a survey of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) revealed a much bigger demand for AWS’ services compared to its rival, which is expected to drive faster growth. Nowak believes that AWS is tactically expected to gain further share over Microsoft, Alphabet (GOOGL), and Oracle (ORCL).

All these factors have led Morgan Stanley to rate Amazon as its “Top Pick” in the sector. Interestingly, Nowak’s “bull case scenario” sets a price target of $350 for AMZN stock, which implies an impressive 57% upside potential from current levels. The top analyst also increased Amazon’s earnings per share (EPS) estimates for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 by 9% and 6%, respectively, in line with his optimistic view.

Yes, AMZN stock scores a Strong Buy consensus rating on TipRanks. This is based on 45 Buys and one Hold rating. Also, the average Amazon price target of $247.43 implies 11.3% upside potential from current levels. Year-to-date, AMZN stock has gained 1.3%.

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