Earnings season is in full swing and it is creating some serious winners and losers. Tactical Bulls may not issue full earnings recaps (as most are AI generated now), but one thing that does matter is how these stocks react after their earnings — and more importantly is how Wall Street sees the stocks performing in the coming 6-month to 12-month period.

It turns out that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is winning in its iPhone refresh cycle from now (perhaps into 2027+). And Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is winning as AWS continues to grow and AI and core infrastructure needs keep rising.

Both stocks have pulled back from their highs on Friday, but after lagging the Magnificent 7 and the market in general both Apple and Amazon hit all-time highs. Now consider that neither Apple nor Amazon shares are outperforming the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ year-to-date.

The question now is which stock Wall Street likes better in relation to the post-earnings reactions and each stock’s respective 12-month price target from analysts.

Tactical investors are likely to go where they feel their capital will be treated best — and underperforming stocks with rekindled growth and much higher price targets look to favor both Apple and Amazon.

Please be advised that all analyst ratings and price targets in this report are credited to each firm by name. Tactical Bulls does not have any formal ratings and does not issue its own price targets on any of the stocks in this report.

APPLE ALMIGHTY

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is finally back to winning for investors with its new iPhone 17 refresh cycle. Sure, there are other products, but the added improvements of some AI (with more to come in 2026) and the iPhone air are bringing in much stronger sales than had originally been expected.

Apple’s stock hit a new all-time high despite trading at 33x forward P/E with 8% revenue growth. And despite Friday’s early gains, which had since been erased in late-morning trade, the iPhone maker’s stock was only up 8% YTD.

The iPhone 17’s strong launch signals the long-awaited upgrade cycle, with double-digit iPhone revenue growth expected in Q4. Despite China sales dip due to supply constraints, analysts are bullish and many investors and analysts alike are calling for this upgrade cycle to continue well into 2027 with next year’s iPhone 18 launch.

While Apple was down 0.2% at $271.20 in late morning trade, Apple hit an all-time high of $277.32 earlier in the morning. Here are the firms seen with analyst calls raising price targets in late-morning trading on Friday:

• Baird (Outperform) price target raised to $280 from $230
• Barclays (Underweight) price target raised to $230 from $180
• BofA (Buy) price target raised to $325 from $320
• Citi (Buy) price target raised to $315 from $245
• D.A. Davidson (Neutral) price target raised to $270 from $250
• Evercore ISI (Outperform) price target raised to $300 from $290
• Goldman Sachs (Buy) raised its price target to $320 from $279
• Jefferies (Hold) price target raised to $247 from $203
• JPMorgan (Overweight) price target raised to $305 from $290
• Morgan Stanley (Overweight) price target raised to $305 from $298
• Rosenblatt (Neutral) price target raised to $250 from $240
• TD Cowen (Buy) raised its price target to $325 from $275
• UBS (Neutral) price target raised to $280 from $220
• Wells Fargo (Overweight) price target raised to $300 from $290

Jefferies also upgraded Apple to Hold from Underperform with a $247 price target.

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AMAZON AWS & AI

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was last seen trading up 10.5% at $246.50, but the stock was briefly at an all-time high of $250.50. Despite shares being at a high, Amazon had been lagging behind some of the big players in the Magnificent 7. Even with Friday’s gain the stock is only up 12% YTD.

That was then. Now Amazon is out proving that it could beat earnings expectations and continue to grow. The reported layoffs this week did not exactly leave many investors thinking Amazon was going to post great numbers. But the earnings report of $1.95 EPS and Revenue of $180.2 billion beat estimates of $1.57 EPS and $177.9 billion in revenues.

The highly watched AWS revenues were also about 5% above expectations at $33 billion. And CEO Andy Jassy said that he continues to see strong demand in AI and core infrastructure, where Amazon is focused on accelerating capacity.

Amazon isn’t just an AWS play, and this current quarter is the all important Christmas and Holidays season. Amazon sees revenues landing between $206 billion and $213 billion, also above the $208 billion consensus.

Here are the firms that have been seen with price target hikes on Amazon:

• Barclays (Overweight) price target raised to $300 from $275
• Benchmark (Buy) price target raised to $295 from $260
• Bernstein (Outperform) price target raised to $300 from $250
• BofA (Buy) price target raised to $303 from $272
• Benchmark (Buy) price target to $295 from $260
• Canaccord (Buy) price target raised to $300 from $280
• Cantor Fitzgerald (Overweight) price target raised to $315 from $280
• Evercore ISI (Outperform) price target raised to $335 from $280
• JPMorgan (Overweight) price target raised to $305 from $265
• KeyBanc Capital Markets (Overweight) price target raised to $303 from $300
• Piper Sandler (Overweight) price target raised to $300 from $255
• RBC Capital Markets (Outperform) price target raised to $300 from $240
• Rosenblatt (Buy) price target raised to $305 from $297
• Stifel (Buy) price target raised to $295 from $270
• Susquehanna (Positive) price target raised to $300 from $260
• UBS (Buy) price target raised to $279 from $271
• Wells Fargo (Overweight) price target to $292 from $280