Lafayette Investments Inc. Buys 500 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Lafayette Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 14,686 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $2,838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 785,811,114 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $141,744,609,000 after buying an additional 14,724,687 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth approximately $17,700,551,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 86,982,857 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $15,689,968,000 after acquiring an additional 6,810,145 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 67,745,972 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $13,091,909,000 after buying an additional 289,532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 0.5% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 56,666,183 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $10,221,446,000 after purchasing an additional 295,132 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AMZN. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $210.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Amazon.com from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $210.00 to $213.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $222.84.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 3,791 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.04, for a total transaction of $686,322.64. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 121,461 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,989,299.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Amazon.com news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.88, for a total transaction of $1,716,551.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 64,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,686,656.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 3,791 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.04, for a total transaction of $686,322.64. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 121,461 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,989,299.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,101,797 shares of company stock valued at $1,220,129,922 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMZN opened at $191.16 on Friday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52 week low of $118.35 and a 52 week high of $201.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $178.68 and its 200 day moving average is $182.42. The company has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.55, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.14.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.18. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 21.39% and a net margin of 7.35%. The firm had revenue of $147.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.63 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 4.86 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.