Wall Street is tripping over itself to heap superlatives on Amazon (AMZN 1.30%) after the e-commerce giant on Thursday reported massive sales and profit gains for the second quarter, but Deutsche Bank (DB 1.60%) analyst Lloyd Walmsley is going even further than most. He said he sees Amazon's market cap hitting an incredible $2 trillion in the not-to-distant future.
In a research note to investors titled "2 Trillion reasons why we like Amazon shares," Walmsley laid out the case for how the tech stock "utterly dominates" marketplace trends. He raised his 12-month price target from $3,300 per share to $4,000 per share, which he notes would push Amazon over the $2 trillion valuation threshold.
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How high is up?
Walmsley isn't alone in seeing Amazon's stock rising more than 30% from its current levels in the next year. UBS also predicted that the company's shares could hit $4,000 per share while Goldman Sachs has set what looks to be a Wall Street high target of $4,200 per share.
Although the tech giant said that "substantial uncertainty" hangs over its guidance because of the pandemic, consumers have turned to its e-commerce operations en masse in their efforts to reduce their trips to brick-and-mortar locations. Amazon may even be challenging Walmart (WMT -1.75%) for retail supremacy.
Back in April, Walmart said that its online grocery sales doubled year over year in the early weeks of the pandemic. But Amazon just reported that its grocery sales tripled in Q2 compared to the prior-year quarter. It also reported high Prime membership engagement, as renewal rates for the loyalty program improved, and membership growth rates rose both in the U.S. and worldwide.
While some of those new members are undoubtedly using free trials, many will likely pay up to remain members after those expire, and help drive Amazon to even stronger growth in the future. A $2 trillion valuation forecast for the company may soon seem quaint.
