Nomura Loves Amazon $5 Billion Buyback, Sees $750 Share Price

Nomura's Robert Drbul maintained a Buy rating on

, with a price target of $750, while mentioning that the recent pullback in the stock offers a buying opportunity. After market close on February 10, the company announced that its board had authorized the repurchase of common stock worth $5 billion. This new share buyback authorization replaces Amazon's earlier $2 billion share buyback authorization by the board in 2010. At the end of FY15, $763 million remained of the previous $2 billion authorization. "We are encouraged by this development as we believe it demonstrates management's and the board's belief in the company's strong cash flow, strong balance sheet, and shared positive outlook on strategy and share price," Drbul stated. The analyst expressed confidence in Amazon's significant growth potential, both in e-commerce and the company's fast growing and highly profitable AWS business. Amazon's TTM free cash flow stood at $7.3 billion in 4Q15, as compared to $1.9 billion in 4Q14.