Ascension Capital Advisors Inc. Makes New $206,000 Investment in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Ascension Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 937 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AMZN. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its stake in Amazon.com by 44.3% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,641,401 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $492,172,000 after buying an additional 811,425 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,335,826 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,484,864,000 after purchasing an additional 183,610 shares in the last quarter. Sassicaia Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in Amazon.com in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $279,000. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Amazon.com by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 356,539 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $66,434,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the period. Finally, Meridian Management Co. increased its holdings in Amazon.com by 27.6% in the 3rd quarter. Meridian Management Co. now owns 33,460 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $6,235,000 after acquiring an additional 7,246 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMZN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $236.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank raised their price target on Amazon.com from $246.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Amazon.com from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $236.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $260.65.

Insider Activity

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 27,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.27, for a total value of $6,332,425.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 497,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $114,459,618.09. This trade represents a 5.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 8,833 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.47, for a total transaction of $1,965,077.51. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,647,456.60. This trade represents a 6.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 102,298 shares of company stock worth $22,871,828 over the last three months. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMZN opened at $192.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.85, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $216.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $208.87. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $151.61 and a 12 month high of $242.52.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.34. Amazon.com had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 24.25%. Analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

Amazon.com Company 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.