Less than a month after Apple became the first U.S. company to be worth at least $1 trillion, Amazon is close to matching that feat.
Amazon shares crossed the $2,000 threshold for the first time on Thursday, placing its market capitalization just shy of the trillion-dollar mark. Amazon’s shares rose as high as $2,025.57 during regular trading before closing at $2002.38, or $977 billion in market value.
Amazon’s gains this week cap a bullish rally that has increased its stock price by 127% during the past year. The Nasdaq Composite Index, by contrast, is up 27% in that period.
The company has been strengthening its position as the leading e-commerce platform, while expanding its brick-and-mortar presence by acquiring Whole Foods Market. It’s also seeing new growth in higher profit-margin businesses such as its Amazon Web Services cloud offerings and selling ads on its properties.
Amazon’s overall revenue rose 39% last quarter, while cloud revenue grew 49% and ad revenue 132%.
A bullish Morgan Stanley analyst report this week helped push the stock above the $2,000 level. On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Amazon from $1,850 a share to $2,500, citing growth in cloud revenue as well as rising Amazon Prime memberships.
At that new price target, Amazon would be valued at around $1.2 trillion.
Apple’s market cap at the end of regular trading on Thursday was $1.09 trillion, having continued its own rally after breaking above the $1 trillion market cap on Aug. 2.
