The company plans on laying off 3% of its workforce, per a New York Times report
Reports were released yesterday evening saying that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is planning on laying off roughly 10,000 of its corporate and tech employees, starting this week. The New York Times reported that this number makes up about 3% of the company's work force, though this exact number could vary, per a source familiar with the matter. The e-tailer is just the latest in a long string of Big Tech companies consolidating their work force, with Twitter (TWTR) and Meta (META) announcing massive layoffs last week.
Just ahead of the news, BofA Global Research knocked Amazon off its "U.S. 1" list, featuring its best investment ideas. But while one door is closing on Amazon, another opens. Earlier this morning, MoffettNathanson initiated coverage on the equity with an "outperform" rating, and an $118 target price.
And despite a concerning 40.9% year-to-date deficit, analysts sentiment remains high. Heading into today, 35 of the 37 in coverage called AMZN a "buy" or better, while the 12-month consensus price target of $141.36 is a 37.4% premium to last night's close.
BofA's bearish note weighed on Amazon stock yesterday, pushing it away from the two-week high atop the $100 mark touched on Friday. The equity is taking another run at this level today, though, up 5.2% at $103.54 at last check.
Options bulls are targeting AMZN at a quicker-than-usual clip this morning, with the 176,000 calls exchanged so far doubling the intraday average. The most popular is the November 105 call, followed by the December 110 and 120 calls.