Hills Bank & Trust Co Reduces Stock Position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Hills Bank & Trust Co reduced its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 1.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,286 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 990 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts for approximately 0.9% of Hills Bank & Trust Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $12,351,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AMZN. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,042,177 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 0.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 67,745,972 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $13,091,909,000 after buying an additional 289,532 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 40,973,804 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $7,917,906,000 after buying an additional 1,329,150 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 1.5% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 31,883,977 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,161,579,000 after buying an additional 464,938 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on AMZN. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $224.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $197.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.20.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,500 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $735,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 524,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $110,159,070. The trade was a 0.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now owns 917,416,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $191,602,535,437.60. This trade represents a 0.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,030,183 shares of company stock worth $1,252,883,795. 10.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $227.03 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $197.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $188.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 48.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.16. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1-year low of $143.64 and a 1-year high of $227.15. 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 for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.29. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. The company had revenue of $158.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. Amazon.com’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.29 earnings per share 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.