Amazon.com Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 691,824 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 29% compared to the average daily volume of 534,726 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on AMZN shares. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $224.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Maxim Group lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $251.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JMP Securities upped their target price on Amazon.com from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.20.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $205.74 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 44.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Amazon.com has a 1-year low of $142.81 and a 1-year high of $215.90. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $194.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $186.66.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. The business had revenue of $158.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. Amazon.com’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 5.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,260 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.19, for a total value of $3,054,899.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 349,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,918,559.59. The trade was a 4.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.06, for a total value of $246,237.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 24,912 shares in the company, valued at $4,958,982.72. This trade represents a 4.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 6,026,683 shares of company stock worth $1,252,148,795. 10.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMZN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 14,724,687 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% in 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 buying an additional 11,370,309 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 valued at $37,116,341,000 after buying an additional 6,545,944 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in 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 worth $15,689,968,000 after buying an additional 6,810,145 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings 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 worth $13,466,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,042,177 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.