Investors who have owned stocks in the last year have generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) total return over the last 12 months is 64%. But there is no question some big-name stocks performed better than others along the way.
Amazon’s Big Run: One company that has been a solid investment in the last two years has been e-commerce and cloud services giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Fortunately for Amazon investors, the COVID-19 pandemic actually boosted demand for Amazon’s e-commerce sales, delivery, streaming video/music and its cloud services.
At the beginning of 2020, Amazon shares were trading at around $1,875. By the beginning of March, the stock was up to $1,906 despite news of the coronavirus spreading in China prompting concerns about a U.S. pandemic.
Amazon ultimately bottomed at $1,626.03 during the pandemic-driven March sell-off. Fortunately for Amazon investors, the dip did not last long.
By mid-April, Amazon shares were back at new all-time highs above $2,200 and got as high as $3,552.25 in September.
Unfortunately, while the rest of the market was making new highs in the second half of 2020, Amazon was trading mostly sideways in a wide range of between around $2,900 and around $3,500.
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Amazon In 2022, Beyond: Amazon made it as high as $3,773.08 in July 2021 before pulling back to around $3,168 today.
Still, investors who bought Amazon stock on the day it hit its pandemic low and held on have generated a nice return on their investment. In fact, $1,000 in AMZN stock bought on March 16, 2020, would be worth about $1,943 today.
Looking ahead, analysts are expecting Amazon stock to gain more ground in the next 12 months. The average price target among the 45 analysts covering the stock is $4,100, suggesting 29.4% upside from current levels.
