Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock Price Up 1.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares were up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Raymond James raised their price target on the stock from $230.00 to $260.00. Raymond James currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as high as $230.99 and last traded at $229.57. Approximately 12,625,132 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 28,738,660 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.94.

AMZN has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.06, for a total value of $246,237.22. Following the transaction, the director now owns 24,912 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,958,982.72. This represents a 4.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.85, for a total value of $1,000,077.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,273,459.55. This represents a 4.70 % decrease in their position. 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 90 days. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rench Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Amazon.com by 7.9% in the third quarter. Rench Wealth Management Inc. now owns 50,403 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $9,392,000 after purchasing an additional 3,703 shares during the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 184,594 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $34,395,000 after buying an additional 16,392 shares during the last quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC boosted its position in Amazon.com by 216.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC now owns 6,930 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,291,000 after buying an additional 4,740 shares during the period. Umpqua Bank grew its holdings in Amazon.com by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 35,120 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,544,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Washington Trust Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Amazon.com by 0.4% in the third quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 225,254 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $41,972,000 after acquiring an additional 982 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $218.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $196.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 49.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 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 the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. The business had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.