Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Trading 1.6% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s share price rose 1.6% during mid-day trading on Monday after Raymond James raised their price target on the stock from $260.00 to $275.00. The company traded as high as $233.84 and last traded at $232.72. Approximately 13,630,193 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 61% from the average daily volume of 34,928,742 shares. The stock had previously closed at $229.15.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AMZN. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $280.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, February 7th. HSBC boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $260.52.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In related news, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.06, for a total transaction of $246,237.22. Following the sale, the director now owns 24,912 shares in the company, valued at $4,958,982.72. This represents a 4.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 5,502 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.81, for a total transaction of $1,132,366.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,911 shares in the company, valued at $106,797,072.91. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,850 shares of company stock worth $6,168,581 over the last quarter. 10.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMZN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Amazon.com by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 823,360,597 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $180,637,081,000 after purchasing an additional 17,635,391 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 199,915,046 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $37,116,341,000 after purchasing an additional 6,545,944 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,042,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Amazon.com by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 67,092,427 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $14,719,407,000 after buying an additional 545,292 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amazon.com Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $2.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 42.09, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $227.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $201.24.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.34. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 25.49% and a net margin of 9.29%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.24 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.