Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Climb 6.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares traded up 6.2% on Wednesday after Freedom Broker raised their price target on the stock from $255.00 to $330.00. Freedom Broker currently has a buy rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as high as $271.49 and last traded at $266.3090. Approximately 92,905,790 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 99% from the average session volume of 46,606,063 shares. The stock had previously closed at $250.69.

A number of other analysts have also commented on AMZN. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $360.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, October 30th. DA Davidson set a $250.00 price target on Amazon.com and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 30th. KeyCorp set a $345.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $335.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.02.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.50, for a total transaction of $251,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 474,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $119,382,271.50. This trade represents a 0.21% 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, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 14,541 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.06, for a total transaction of $3,766,991.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 17,794 shares in the company, valued at $4,609,713.64. The trade was a 44.97% 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 have sold 70,589 shares of company stock worth $18,302,125 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.

Key Amazon.com News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon rallied alongside other major cloud companies amid a broader tech-market rebound after the midterm elections. Investors also pointed to tight cloud-computing capacity, which could give Amazon and Microsoft room to raise prices. Read article
• Positive Sentiment: AWS growth reportedly accelerated to nearly 40%, while its $578 billion backlog signals substantial future demand. Phillip Securities raised its price target to $330, and management expects AWS growth above 40% in 2027 and 2028. Read article
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon introduced a merchant workspace that lets eligible sellers connect their stores to Shop Direct, potentially making more products discoverable through Alexa for Shopping as well as Amazon’s site and app. Read article
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports of local data-center restrictions raised questions about the pace of AI infrastructure expansion. Some investors appear to expect Amazon can redirect construction to other locations, but regulation and community opposition could still affect build-out plans. Read article
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s roughly $220 billion AI investment plan is weighing on free cash flow, leaving investors focused on whether future returns will justify the spending. The recent earnings report also missed consensus EPS and revenue estimates, according to the provided background. Read article
• Negative Sentiment: AI shopping agents could divert customer activity away from retailers’ own platforms, potentially putting pressure on Amazon’s advertising revenue and access to shopping data. Read article

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 411,848,346 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $95,504,904,000 after acquiring an additional 21,398,025 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter worth about $22,218,775,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter worth about $16,341,405,000. Amundi raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 63,822,242 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $15,211,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,421,739 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the second quarter worth approximately $12,831,376,000. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Up 6.2%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $253.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $243.18. The company has a market cap of $2.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.49.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $201.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.22 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 16.90% and a return on equity of 15.72%. Amazon.com’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.95 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.84 EPS for the current year.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc is a global technology and e-commerce company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Originally launched as an online bookstore, the company has expanded into a broad digital marketplace offering consumer products across numerous categories, including electronics, household goods, apparel, groceries and other merchandise. Amazon also sells products under its own brands and provides logistics, fulfillment and delivery services that support its retail operations and third-party sellers.

The company’s principal businesses include online and physical retail, Amazon Web Services (AWS), digital advertising, subscription services and consumer technology.