Verus Financial Partners Inc. Acquires 72 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,475 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Verus Financial Partners Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $323,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 401,113 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $77,515,000 after buying an additional 44,615 shares during the period. Beck Bode LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $651,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Amazon.com during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,243,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 40,973,804 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $7,917,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,329,150 shares during the period. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in Amazon.com by 1.6% in the second quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,843,015 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $356,163,000 after purchasing an additional 29,308 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMZN. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Amazon.com from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $270.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $260.74.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMZN opened at $216.58 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $227.88 and a 200-day moving average of $204.26. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $151.61 and a 12 month high of $242.52. The company has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of Amazon.com 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 sale, the director now directly owns 88,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,273,459.55. The trade was a 4.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 5,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.44, for a total value of $1,256,648.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 505,318 shares in the company, valued at $115,434,843.92. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 40,852 shares of company stock worth $9,324,151. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

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.