October Effect Ltd Reduces Stake in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

October Effect Ltd lowered its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 51.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,853 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 6,271 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts for about 1.3% of October Effect Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. October Effect Ltd’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $1,395,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 7.5% in the first quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 73,085 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $15,221,000 after buying an additional 5,125 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.7% during the first quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 303,862 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $63,285,000 after acquiring an additional 5,104 shares during the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 216,606 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $49,997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,854 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,653,228 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,690,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,275,942 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 147,461 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $30,712,000 after purchasing an additional 2,583 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Evercore raises target on agentic AI potential. Evercore ISI lifted its AMZN price target to $355 from $315.16 and maintained an Outperform rating. The firm believes agentic AI could improve retail growth and strengthen trends across Amazon Web Services (AWS), advertising and e-commerce. Why is Amazon stock surging 4% today
• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Nvidia partnership reinforces AI demand. Amazon plans to add 2 million Nvidia GPUs to its data centers in 2027–2028, bringing its announced commitment to roughly 3 million chips. The spending signals strong expected demand for AWS AI capacity and helped distinguish Amazon positively within the AI infrastructure sector. Amazon just tripled its order of Nvidia chips over surging demand
• Positive Sentiment: AWS and AI economics remain major growth catalysts. Reports cited approximately 37% AWS revenue growth to $42.2 billion in the second quarter, while Amazon’s AI and chip businesses each reached annualized revenue run rates above $25 billion. Analysts also highlighted solid retail profitability and long-term cloud adoption. Amazon Stock: AI Investment Gains Momentum as AWS Revenue Surges
• Positive Sentiment: New distribution and energy initiatives support the platform. Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities by year-end, while new power-purchase agreements add 600 megawatts of carbon-free electricity and support data-center expansion. Amazon is about to six times its drone delivery footprint
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon-backed Zoox is launching robotaxi service in San Francisco, creating a potential long-term growth option but adding an unproven business with significant execution requirements. Amazon-backed Zoox launches robotaxis in San Francisco
• Negative Sentiment: AI spending is raising return-on-investment concerns. The enlarged GPU commitment adds to an already substantial capital budget, prompting investors to question whether AWS demand and AI monetization will justify the cost. Amazon’s post-earnings gains have also partially faded, and billionaire Bill Ackman reportedly shifted from Amazon to Microsoft.
• Negative Sentiment: California litigation over alleged price-fixing remains an overhang, although a judge indicated the state’s request to block Amazon’s practices would likely be denied. Judge likely to deny California’s bid to stop Amazon’s alleged price fixing

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total value of $5,180,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,235,766 shares in the company, valued at $579,085,751.66. This trade represents a 0.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.77, for a total transaction of $2,404,950.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,699,926.30. This trade represents a 18.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 71,589 shares of company stock worth $18,580,205. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMZN opened at $266.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.43, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.45. The business’s 50 day moving average is $251.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $240.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12-month low of $196.00 and a 12-month high of $287.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Arete Research increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $301.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up from $355.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.09.

Amazon.com Profile

Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.

Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.