Welch Group LLC Sells 2,337 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Welch Group LLC decreased its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 4.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,752 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 2,337 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $9,515,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AMZN. Members Trust Co raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 4,157 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $638,000 after buying an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,260 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $799,000 after buying an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 71,576 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $10,875,000 after buying an additional 2,273 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. now owns 705,065 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $89,628,000 after buying an additional 26,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,397,520 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $825,065,000 after buying an additional 277,631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $213.89.

Amazon.com Price Performance

AMZN opened at $186.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 52.13, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $182.72 and a 200 day moving average of $171.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.07. Amazon.com, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $118.35 and a fifty-two week high of $191.70.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $143.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.65 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 19.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 4.72 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.29, for a total transaction of $620,515.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 523,253 shares in the company, valued at $92,767,524.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.39, for a total value of $489,753.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at $21,726,894.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.29, for a total transaction of $620,515.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 523,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $92,767,524.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 65,338 shares of company stock worth $11,894,344 over the last quarter. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Amazon.com 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.