Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 676,766 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 27% compared to the average volume of 533,724 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 3,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.97, for a total transaction of $523,807.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at $20,239,226.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 3,100 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.97, for a total transaction of $523,807.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,239,226.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 5,998,849 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.33, for a total transaction of $1,039,780,497.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 970,255,270 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $168,174,345,949.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,198,961 shares of company stock worth $4,482,430,577 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AMZN. Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Amazon.com by 0.7% in the first quarter. Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,755 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,399,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Stordahl Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Stordahl Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,763 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $498,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Lutz Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Lutz Financial Services LLC now owns 3,053 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $551,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. O Dell Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. O Dell Group LLC now owns 13,638 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,460,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Echo45 Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Amazon.com by 0.9% during the first quarter. Echo45 Advisors LLC now owns 6,619 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,194,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN traded up $1.50 on Thursday, reaching $189.50. 43,306,293 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 43,830,309. Amazon.com has a twelve month low of $108.05 and a twelve month high of $191.70. The company has a fifty day moving average of $179.90 and a 200-day moving average of $161.81. The company has a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.08, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $143.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.65 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 19.86% and a net margin of 6.38%. The company’s revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.31 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMZN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $185.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.62.

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.