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

Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose 1.9% during mid-day 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. Approximately 9,493,776 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average daily volume of 27,071,990 shares. The stock had previously closed at $217.76.

AMZN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on Amazon.com from $235.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $221.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $245.65.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 5,502 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.81, for a total value of $1,132,366.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,911 shares in the company, valued at $106,797,072.91. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.85, for a total transaction of $1,000,077.35. Following the sale, the director now owns 88,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,273,459.55. This trade represents a 4.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,032,344 shares of company stock worth $1,253,456,822 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $66,926,008,000 after acquiring an additional 11,370,309 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 6,545,944 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Amazon.com by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 69,686,374 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $13,466,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,042,177 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 67,745,972 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $13,091,909,000 after purchasing an additional 289,532 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.6% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 57,833,954 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $10,776,201,000 after buying an additional 1,984,592 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Trading Up 1.9 %

The firm has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 47.51, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50 day moving average is $217.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $195.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.29. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. The company had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict 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.