Gries Financial LLC Increases Position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Gries Financial LLC increased its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 31.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 25,151 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,079 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up 0.9% of Gries Financial LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Gries Financial LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $4,686,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 182,359 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $32,894,000 after purchasing an additional 43,759 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 33,729 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,084,000 after buying an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 5.8% in the first quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 16,563 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,988,000 after buying an additional 901 shares in the last quarter. Smart Money Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. Smart Money Group LLC now owns 5,754 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,007,000 after buying an additional 1,279 shares during the period. Finally, Paradigm Strategies in Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 19.9% during the first quarter. Paradigm Strategies in Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,173 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $572,000 after purchasing an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 2,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.00, for a total value of $427,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 62,420 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,171,900. This represents a 3.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,766 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.85, for a total transaction of $1,000,145.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 94,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,858,105.50. The trade was a 4.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,011,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,249,093,896 over the last three months. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on AMZN. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Amazon.com from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $245.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Amazon.com from $213.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Amazon.com from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.45.

Amazon.com Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $204.61 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $192.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $186.06. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 43.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.14. Amazon.com, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $141.50 and a fifty-two week high of $215.90.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Amazon.com

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.