Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its price target upped by Wells Fargo & Company from $201.00 to $238.00 in a research note published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on AMZN. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $255.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $230.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Amazon.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.41.

Amazon.com Trading Down 1.8%

NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $219.36 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $207.80 and its 200-day moving average is $208.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.05. Amazon.com has a 52 week low of $151.61 and a 52 week high of $242.52. The firm has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.33.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.59 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $154.96 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 24.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Amazon.com will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 13,570 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.41, for a total value of $2,746,703.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 47,030 shares in the company, valued at $9,519,342.30. This trade represents a 22.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Brian T. Olsavsky sold 17,750 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.57, for a total transaction of $3,577,867.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 49,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,876,930. The trade was a 26.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 6,401,408 shares of company stock valued at $1,423,159,137. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of AMZN. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,266,582,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the first quarter valued at approximately $11,674,091,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Amazon.com by 21,420.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30,245,061 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,754,425,000 after purchasing an additional 30,104,520 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Amazon.com by 36.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 65,709,496 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $14,416,078,000 after purchasing an additional 17,681,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Amazon.com by 2.2% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.