Amazon.com’s (AMZN) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) in a research note released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $250.00 price objective on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AMZN. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Maxim Group lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $251.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $245.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.85.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMZN opened at $230.71 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $218.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.47. The company has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 49.40, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. Amazon.com has a 1-year low of $151.61 and a 1-year high of $233.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $157.28 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Amazon.com will post 5.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In related news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.85, for a total value of $1,000,077.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 88,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,273,459.55. The trade was a 4.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.75, for a total transaction of $619,497,843.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 914,420,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $189,056,461,944.50. The trade was a 0.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,032,344 shares of company stock worth $1,253,456,822 over the last ninety days. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $66,926,008,000 after purchasing an additional 11,370,309 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 3.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 199,915,046 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $37,116,341,000 after acquiring an additional 6,545,944 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Amazon.com by 1.5% during the second 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 acquiring an additional 1,042,177 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,984,592 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Amazon.com by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,308,094 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $10,678,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,980,663 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.