Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock Price Up 1.6% on Analyst Upgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares rose 1.6% on Tuesday after Raymond James raised their price target on the stock from $230.00 to $260.00. Raymond James currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as high as $230.99 and last traded at $229.57. Approximately 12,625,132 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 28,738,660 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.94.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on AMZN. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $236.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $197.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its position in Amazon.com by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $66,926,008,000 after purchasing an additional 11,370,309 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Amazon.com by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 199,915,046 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $37,116,341,000 after purchasing an additional 6,545,944 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Amazon.com by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 69,686,374 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $13,466,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,042,177 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Amazon.com by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 57,833,954 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $10,776,201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,984,592 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Amazon.com by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,308,094 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $10,678,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,663 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.1 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $218.30 and its 200-day moving average is $196.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $158.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.39 EPS 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.