Amazon.com’s (AMZN) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Wedbush in a research note issued to investors on Monday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $280.00 target price on the e-commerce giant’s stock, up from their prior target price of $260.00. Wedbush’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 20.65% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Amazon.com from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $246.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.46.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMZN traded down $2.77 on Monday, hitting $232.08. 12,463,872 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 29,514,328. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.49, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.14. Amazon.com has a 12 month low of $151.61 and a 12 month high of $236.40. The business’s fifty day moving average is $220.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $197.44.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $157.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. Amazon.com’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 5.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In other news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 5,004 shares of the business’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 transaction, the director now directly owns 99,396 shares in the company, valued at $19,864,290.60. The trade was a 4.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,500 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total value of $735,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 524,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,159,070. This trade represents a 0.66 % decrease in their position. 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 in the last 90 days. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $72,921,080,000 after buying an additional 38,949,065 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its position 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 valued at $2,125,148,000 after acquiring an additional 11,391,479 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $66,926,008,000 after acquiring an additional 11,370,309 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 6,545,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 13,606.7% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.