First Trust Advisors LP Acquires 706,849 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 15.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,288,837 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after buying an additional 706,849 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up about 1.0% of First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $1,160,318,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 400.0% in the 4th quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 125 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Perritt Capital Management Inc raised its position in Amazon.com by 72.7% during the fourth quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 190 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AMZN. Citizens Jmp dropped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $285.00 to $240.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $212.00 price objective (down from $215.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Amazon.com from $255.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $260.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $235.00 target price (up previously from $225.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and forty-four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $244.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 8,833 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.47, for a total value of $1,965,077.51. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,647,456.60. The trade was a 6.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 shares were sold at an average price of $228.44, for a total transaction of $1,256,648.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 505,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,434,843.92. This represents a 1.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 80,798 shares of company stock worth $17,696,733 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $210.25 on Thursday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a twelve month low of $151.61 and a twelve month high of $242.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $188.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $208.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.23 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.30.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $155.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.96 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 24.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current fiscal 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.