Welch Group LLC Purchases 2,839 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Welch Group LLC lifted its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 55,874 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,839 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $10,411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Amazon.com by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 785,811,114 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $141,744,609,000 after buying an additional 14,724,687 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 86,982,857 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $15,689,968,000 after acquiring an additional 6,810,145 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 69,686,374 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $13,466,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,042,177 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 0.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 67,745,972 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $13,091,909,000 after purchasing an additional 289,532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Amazon.com by 7.4% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 42,370,172 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $7,642,732,000 after purchasing an additional 2,932,192 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $210.71 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 45.12, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $194.78 and a 200 day moving average of $186.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.81 and a 12 month high of $215.90.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. Amazon.com’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 917,416,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $191,602,535,437.60. The trade was a 0.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,260 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.19, for a total transaction of $3,054,899.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 349,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,918,559.59. This represents a 4.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,026,683 shares of company stock worth $1,252,148,795 in the last three months. Insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on AMZN shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $224.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank increased their target price on Amazon.com from $245.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research initiated coverage on Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $260.00 price target for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $213.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.20.

Amazon.com 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.