Amazon (AMZN) shares climbed roughly 4% on Friday, opening at $266.43, after Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney raised his price target on the stock to $355 from $315 while maintaining his Buy rating.

Mahaney ranks 423rd among more than 12,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks, with an 84% success rate on AMZN and an average return of 21.81% per rating over a one-year period — a track record that lends weight to his calls.

The upgrade was supported by Evercore's latest U.S. Online Retail survey, which highlighted several solid trends in Amazon's retail business. Amazon's shopper penetration in the U.S. stands at 92%, well ahead of Walmart, while customer satisfaction sits at 76%. Around 60% of Prime members said they would renew their subscription even if the annual fee rose by $20.

Agentic AI is also beginning to drive purchases. The survey found that 57% of Alexa AI users bought items they had not previously searched for, suggesting AI is generating new demand rather than simply redirecting existing intent. That dynamic matters beyond retail: if agentic AI assistants meaningfully expand purchase volume, it could reinforce Amazon's core advertising and marketplace economics as well.

Delivery Speed and the Prime Spending Gap

Shipping metrics improved as well. Regular same-day delivery usage rebounded to 49%, and Prime members who use same-day delivery now spend 3.1 times more than non-Prime users — the widest gap Mahaney said he has seen. The widening gap between Prime and non-Prime spending underscores why delivery speed remains one of Amazon's most durable competitive levers against Walmart and other large retailers racing to shorten their own delivery windows.

Amazon's Perishable Checkout tool is adding momentum in groceries, with nearly half of users who see it adding fresh items to their cart. Groceries have long been one of Amazon's harder-to-crack categories relative to incumbents with established fresh-food footprints, making the tool's traction a notable data point.

On the infrastructure side, AWS is expanding rapidly. Amazon plans to add 2 million high-end Nvidia GPUs, including Blackwell Ultra and Rubin chips, across 2027 and 2028, bringing its total announced chip commitment to roughly 3 million units. The buildout places Amazon alongside Microsoft and Alphabet in the current wave of hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending. Investors viewed the GPU buildout as a direct signal that AI workload demand on AWS remains strong and that Amazon is prepared to spend to meet it — spending that also implies a substantially higher capital expenditure load in coming years, a trade-off investors will be watching in future quarterly reports.

Strong Q2 Results Still in Focus

Amazon's most recent earnings report, released July 30, added to the positive backdrop. The company posted Q2 EPS of $5.75 against a consensus estimate of $1.82 — a beat of $3.93 per share. Revenue came in at $200.61 billion, ahead of the $197.03 billion estimate and up 19.6% year over year.

AWS revenue grew approximately 37% to $42.2 billion in Q2, and Amazon's AI and chip businesses each reached annualized revenue run rates above $25 billion.

On the institutional side, Athena Wealth Management increased its AMZN position by 47% during Q2, and several other firms also added to existing holdings during the period.

Wall Street's overall view remains firmly positive. Based on 39 Buy ratings and one Hold recommendation from the past three months, the consensus is Strong Buy, with an average price target of $334.05 implying about 25% upside from current levels. Mahaney's new $355 target sits above that average, representing 33% upside from the stock's opening price on Friday.