The shares of Amazon (AMZN) are advancing slightly after the company reported better than expected quarterly results. Wall Street analysts were mostly upbeat following the report, with several raising their price targets on the e-commerce giant's stock to near $1,000 per share.

RESULTS: Amazon reported Q2 earnings per share of $1.78, versus the consensus estimate of $1.11. The company's revenue came in at $30.4B, compared with the consensus estimate of $29.55B. Amazon said that the revenue generated by its cloud unit, AWS, jumped to $2.89B last quarter, up from $1.82B in the same period a year earlier. The online retail giant expects its Q3 revenue to grow to $31.0B-$33.5B and its operating income to come in at $50M-$650M, versus $406M in the third quarter of 2015.

TARGETS RAISED: Amazon reported "many strong metrics," including a two percentage point increase in its consolidated margins compared with the previous quarter, wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Sandler. The AWS unit is "on fire," he added. Moreover, Amazon "remains arguably the best positioned mega cap tech company," given its "massive" total available market and leadership positions, said Sandler, who raised his price target on the shares to $985 from $900 and kept a Buy rating on the stock. Amazon reported "exceptional" Q2 results, according to Oppenheimer's Jason Helfstein. The strength of AWS, along with a mix shift towards third party retailers and overseas sales, caused Amazon's gross profit growth to accelerate, Helfstein stated. The operating margins of AWS came in 4.5 percentage points above Helfstein's estimate, and the profit margin of the company's North America e-commerce business rose 1.27 percentage points year-over-year, the analyst stated. Calling Amazon's Q3 operating income guidance conservative, Helfstein said that the forecast was light due to investments that the company is making in content and in shipping ahead of the holiday season. He raised his price target on the shares to $941 from $930 and kept an Outperform rating on the shares. Amazon reported "solid" results and it still has "plenty of growth opportunities ahead," wrote Jefferies analyst Brian Pitz. Amazon is continuing to gain market share, and it's benefiting from improvements in its fulfillment services, Pitz believes. Meanwhile, it can get a huge boost from growing its international business, wrote the analyst, who hiked his price target on the shares to $950 from $865 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. Citi, Piper, UBS, and RBC Capital were among the other firms that raised their price targets on Amazon today.

PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, Amazon rose 1.2% to about $762 per share. Earlier the stock set a 52-week high of $766 per share.