Amazon's Stock Surges Toward Third-straight Record After Analyst Sets $1,100 Price Target

Shares of Amazon.com Inc. rallied 1.1% toward a third-straight record high, and fifth-straight gain, after a Loop Capital issued a bullish research note on the e-commerce giant. The stock has now run up 4.8% this week, and over 18% so far this year, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index has climbed 12% year to date and the S&P 500 has gained 5.7%. Analyst Blake Harper at Loop Capital initiated coverage of Amazon at buy, on the belief Amazon will continue to be the market-leading online retailer and cloud-based services provider. He set his stock price target of $1,100, which is 24% above current levels, and the third highest of the 46 analysts surveyed by FactSet. "We view the company as a giant optimization engine for physical and digital distribution, with an innovation philosophy that should enable it to succeed in multiple new markets," Harper wrote in a note to clients. "We expect the cloud business--Amazon Web Services (AWS)--to be spun off in the future, with a potential value of over $200 billion."