Amazon (AMZN) Stock: Cathie Wood Buys $1.93M Worth of Shares Before Thursday Earnings

TLDR

• ARK Fintech Innovation ETF purchased 8,088 Amazon shares worth $1.93 million on January 30, ahead of February 5 earnings
• Wall Street forecasts Q4 earnings of $1.97 per share on $211.43 billion revenue, up 13% year-over-year
• AWS cloud services hit fastest growth rate since 2022, fueled by AI infrastructure spending
• Wedbush maintains $340 price target, indicating 42% upside based on cloud demand and capacity expansion
• Amazon wrapped up 30,000 job cuts to streamline operations and reduce bureaucracy

Cathie Wood’s ARK Fintech Innovation ETF bought $1.93 million worth of Amazon stock on January 30. The purchase came just days before the company’s fourth-quarter earnings announcement scheduled for February 5.

Amazon.com, Inc., AMZN

The fund acquired 8,088 shares. The move signals confidence in Amazon’s business heading into earnings season.

Analysts expect Amazon to report Q4 earnings of $1.97 per share, up from $1.86 in the prior year. Revenue is projected at $211.43 billion, representing 13% growth.

AWS Drives Performance

Amazon Web Services remains the growth driver. CEO Andy Jassy stated that cloud growth reached its fastest pace since 2022. Rising AI spending pushed demand higher.

Companies are locking in cloud capacity and expanding workloads. The AWS backlog grew faster than Wall Street anticipated. Management plans to bring more capacity online throughout 2026.

Amazon shares jumped nearly 10% after third-quarter results in October. The rally came from better-than-expected AWS performance.

Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt maintained his buy rating with a $340 price target. That represents roughly 42% upside from current prices. The firm cited strong cloud demand, growing backlog, and upcoming capacity additions.

The core retail business shows healthy trends. Advertising revenue keeps climbing steadily. Wedbush named Amazon its top e-commerce pick for 2026.

Company Completes Restructuring

Amazon confirmed 16,000 corporate job cuts on January 28. The layoffs completed a broader plan to eliminate 30,000 positions since October.

These cuts mark nearly 10% of the workforce. They represent the largest reduction in Amazon’s history, exceeding the 27,000 jobs cut between late 2022 and early 2023.

Beth Galetti, Amazon’s top HR executive, said the cuts aim to reduce layers and remove bureaucracy. The goal is improving efficiency and speeding up decision-making.

Wood’s Market Outlook

Wood’s funds faced mixed results recently. The ARK Innovation ETF gained 35.49% in 2025, beating the S&P 500’s 17.88% return. However, the five-year annualized return sits at -11.29% through January 30.

Year-to-date, the ARK Innovation ETF dropped 3.85% as of January 30. The S&P 500 rose 1.37% over the same period.

The Wall Street Journal reported Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI. That would make Amazon the largest contributor to OpenAI’s fundraising round.

TipRanks data shows 34 buy ratings and one hold rating for Amazon. The average analyst price target stands at $296.22, suggesting 23.8% upside potential.

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