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Power Ratings Product Reviews Tech Stats Wildstrom: Tech Maven AUTOS Home Page Auto Reviews Classic Cars Car Care & Safety Hybrids INNOVATION & DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads BW EXTRAS BW Digital BW Mobile BW Online Alerts Dashboard Widgets Podcasts RSS RSS Feeds RSS Reprints/ Permissions Conferences Research Services JULY 27, 2005 STORY TOOLS Printer-Friendly Version E-Mail This Story RELATED ITEMS Word on the Street Archive PEOPLE SEARCH Search for business contacts: First Name : ____________________ Last Name : ____________________ Company Name : ____________________ Submit PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts Search by Zoominfo Advice from Standard and Poors WORD ON THE STREET Piper Jaffray Upgrades Amazon.com Analyst Safa Rashtchy believes the improvement in the company's margin structure warrants a higher multiple Amazon.com (AMZN ) reported 12 cents second-quarter earnings per share, and sees $8.275 billion to $8.675 billion 2005 sales. Piper Jaffray upgraded the stock. Analyst Safa Rashtchy upgrades Amazon to market perform from underperform. He says the online retailer's reported $1.75 billion second-quarter revenues beat his $1.72 billion estimate, and the reported 12 cents GAAP EPS beat his 5 cents estimate. He raised 2005 estimates to 70 cents EPS on $8.6 billion in revenues from 42 cents EPS on $8.4 billion in revenues, 2006 estimates to 95 cents EPS on $10.2 billion in revenues from 59 cents EPS on $9.8 billion in revenues. Rashtchy says his new estimates reflect gross margin improvements driven by high margin credit card activation revenues and third party sales. He believes the improvement in the company's margin structure warrants a higher multiple. As such, he upgrades and raises $30 price target to $44. All of the views expressed in this research report accurately reflect the research analyst's personal views regarding any and all of the subject securities or issuers. 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