Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 78,698 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock, valued at approximately $14,648,000. Amazon.com comprises about 1.2% of Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AMZN. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Amazon.com by 20,897.2% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 38,949,065 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in Amazon.com by 82,457.3% in the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 11,405,294 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,125,148,000 after buying an additional 11,391,479 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $759,971,000 after acquiring an additional 3,903,889 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 20,517.4% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 3,884,325 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $750,646,000 after acquiring an additional 3,865,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Amazon.com during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $492,144,000. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.85, for a total transaction of $625,790,203.70. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 917,416,976 shares in the company, valued at $191,602,535,437.60. This represents a 0.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.06, for a total transaction of $246,237.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 24,912 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,958,982.72. The trade was a 4.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,032,344 shares of company stock worth $1,253,456,822 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AMZN. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Telsey Advisory Group raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $245.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.65.

Amazon.com Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $223.35 on Thursday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.91 and a 52 week high of $233.00. 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 company has a market cap of $2.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 47.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $217.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $195.74.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. Amazon.com’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.29 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.