Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Up 0.3% on Analyst Upgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) traded up 0.3% during trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $197.00 to $212.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as high as $221.82 and last traded at $219.07. 7,138,555 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 27,058,551 shares. The stock had previously closed at $218.46.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on Amazon.com from $235.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Pivotal Research assumed coverage on Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $260.00 target price for the company. Finally, HSBC raised their price target on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.85, for a total value of $1,000,077.35. Following the transaction, the director now owns 88,203 shares in the company, valued at $20,273,459.55. This trade represents a 4.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.85, for a total transaction of $625,790,203.70. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 917,416,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $191,602,535,437.60. This represents a 0.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,032,344 shares of company stock worth $1,253,456,822. 10.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Wesleyan Assurance Society bought a new stake in Amazon.com during the second quarter worth about $1,199,000. Value Star Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 16.7% during the second quarter. Value Star Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd now owns 35,000 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $6,764,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Waterway Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 3.1% during the second quarter. Waterway Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,320 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $642,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.2% during the second quarter. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 17,622 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $3,405,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planning Alternatives Ltd. ADV grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 31.2% during the second quarter. Planning Alternatives Ltd. ADV now owns 1,619 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $313,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $216.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $195.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 46.92, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.14.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. The business had revenue of $158.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. Amazon.com’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amazon.com Company Profile

Amazon.com, Inc engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content.