Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Trading Up 1.9% After Analyst Upgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shot up 1.9% during trading on Wednesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $197.00 to $212.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as high as $223.47 and last traded at $221.95. 9,493,776 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 27,071,990 shares. The stock had previously closed at $217.76.

AMZN has been the subject of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $236.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $230.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $230.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.65.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,260 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.19, for a total value of $3,054,899.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 349,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,918,559.59. This represents a 4.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 5,004 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.85, for a total transaction of $1,000,049.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 99,396 shares in the company, valued at $19,864,290.60. This represents a 4.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,032,344 shares of company stock valued at $1,253,456,822 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMZN. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 20,897.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 39,135,449 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $72,921,080,000 after purchasing an additional 38,949,065 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 82,457.3% during the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 11,405,294 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,125,148,000 after purchasing an additional 11,391,479 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $66,926,008,000 after purchasing an additional 11,370,309 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 3.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 199,915,046 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $37,116,341,000 after purchasing an additional 6,545,944 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 13,606.7% during the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 3,932,580 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $759,971,000 after purchasing an additional 3,903,889 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $217.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $195.74. The firm has a market cap of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.83, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.14.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $157.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.