Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 1,152,167 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 19,608,246 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 1,152,167 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com comprises approximately 2.3% of Principal Financial Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $4,525,979,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WT Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. WT Wealth Management now owns 38,923 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $8,984,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Fulcrum Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth about $5,119,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,329,340 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $306,838,000 after buying an additional 51,041 shares during the period. Fogel Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fogel Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,418 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $4,482,000 after buying an additional 321 shares during the period. Finally, Hidden Cove Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Hidden Cove Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,010 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,849,000 after buying an additional 731 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $271.85 on Thursday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $278.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $242.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $232.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by $1.15. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 19.92% and a net margin of 12.22%.The business had revenue of $181.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.59 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amazon.com News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon Web Services is deepening its AI growth story by selling AI shopping tools to retailers and expanding its broader “agentic commerce” strategy, reinforcing AWS as a potential new growth engine. Amazon starts selling its AI shopping technology to other retailers
• Positive Sentiment: Snowflake’s $6 billion AWS commitment highlights continued demand for Amazon’s cloud infrastructure and AI chips, which investors may view as validation of AWS’s competitive position and revenue pipeline. Snowflake signs $6 billion deal with AWS tied to AI infrastructure
• Positive Sentiment: UBS and other analysts remain bullish, arguing Amazon’s AWS AI backlog and margin expansion could be more powerful than Wall Street currently expects, with price targets well above recent trading levels. Amazon Stock (AMZN): This Top Analyst Says AWS AI Growth Is Stronger Than Investors Realize
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary says AWS margins are holding up better than rivals, helping support the case that Amazon can monetize AI spending without sacrificing profitability. AWS Margins Are Leaving Cloud Rivals Behind as Anthropic Demand Surges
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon’s healthcare leadership change appears operational rather than strategic: longtime health executive Neil Lindsay is stepping down and Dr. Roy Schoenberg will take over, so the market may view it as a business continuity move. Amazon puts Amwell co-founder in charge of healthcare unit; longtime executive to depart
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple executive stock sales, including by CEO Andy Jassy and other leaders, may create modest short-term pressure or raise questions about insider sentiment, even though the trades were reported as pre-planned. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Matthew Garman Sells 15,467 Shares of Stock

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on AMZN. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 target price (up from $260.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Moffett Nathanson lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $283.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Fifty-seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.66.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 6,370 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.39, for a total transaction of $1,671,424.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,527 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $127,659,819.53. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.53, for a total value of $2,489,273.10. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,060,750.70. This represents a 18.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 195,774 shares of company stock worth $51,552,494 over the last three months. Insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Company 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.