Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Boosts Stock Position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 254,015 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 421 shares during the period. Amazon.com comprises about 2.6% of Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $55,728,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AMZN. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 20,897.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 39,135,449 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $72,921,080,000 after buying an additional 38,949,065 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 82,457.3% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 11,405,294 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,125,148,000 after buying an additional 11,391,479 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% in the third 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 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 valued at $37,116,341,000 after purchasing an additional 6,545,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 20,517.4% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 3,884,325 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $750,646,000 after acquiring an additional 3,865,485 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Benchmark lifted their price target on Amazon.com from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Amazon.com from $197.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $280.00 target price (up previously from $260.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $275.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $252.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In related news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total value of $735,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 524,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,159,070. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,026,212 shares of company stock worth $625,666,424 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

AMZN opened at $238.83 on Friday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1 year low of $151.61 and a 1 year high of $242.52. The company has a market capitalization of $2.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 51.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $225.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $200.03. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.34. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. Research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.3 EPS for the current 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.