Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Up 2.6% – Should You Buy?

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock price rose 2.6% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $244.88 and last traded at $244.68. Approximately 37,792,239 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 9% from the average daily volume of 41,593,367 shares. The stock had previously closed at $238.42.

Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts & earnings previews point to upside — Bank of America and other firms expect Amazon to beat Q4 consensus and several brokers have reiterated buy/positive views, supporting sentiment ahead of earnings. Amazon tipped to top fourth quarter estimates as online spending remains stable
• Positive Sentiment: Retail footprint pivot could improve economics — Amazon announced it will close Amazon Fresh and Go stores and convert some locations to Whole Foods while expanding same‑day grocery delivery, a move investors view as reallocating capital to higher‑return channels. Amazon to close Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh to concentrate on Whole Foods and grocery delivery
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure competition heats up — Microsoft unveiled the Maia 200 inference chip, tightening the hyperscaler arms race; this raises questions about AWS hardware strategy but also underscores cloud providers’ long‑term AI revenue opportunity. Microsoft’s Maia 200: The Profit Engine AI Needs (AMZN)
• Neutral Sentiment: UPS unwind of Amazon volume is being priced in — UPS plans to cut delivery volume tied to Amazon, which shifts logistics dynamics (potentially higher Amazon control of last‑mile but also transitional costs). Market reaction has been mixed. UPS to cut additional 30,000 jobs in Amazon unwind, turnaround plan
• Negative Sentiment: Large returns/consumer settlement announced — Amazon agreed to a returns‑policy settlement involving consumer refunds and payouts (reported as a multi‑hundred‑million to >$1B impact), which is a one‑time hit and reputational headwind. Amazon agrees to pay consumers $309M in returns policy settlement
• Negative Sentiment: Cost and workforce pressure vs. big AI spend — Coverage highlights potential new job cuts even as Amazon is investing billions into AI/cloud infrastructure (~$35B cited in some coverage), creating near‑term margin and execution risk. Amazon Shares Stall as Job Cuts Loom Against $35B AI Spending | AMZN Stock

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMZN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $300.00 target price on Amazon.com and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $300.00 price target on Amazon.com and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $295.00 target price (up from $270.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.65.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market cap of $2.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $231.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $229.23.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.38. Amazon.com had a net margin of 11.06% and a return on equity of 23.62%. The business had revenue of $180.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $177.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 EPS. Amazon.com’s revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.03, for a total value of $5,500,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 493,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $123,391,555.21. The trade was a 4.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 19,872 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.94, for a total value of $4,311,031.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,208,310 shares in the company, valued at $479,070,771.40. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 79,734 shares of company stock worth $18,534,017. Insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,438,011,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amazon.com in the first quarter worth $11,674,091,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Amazon.com by 2.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 849,721,601 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $186,420,422,000 after acquiring an additional 17,447,045 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 22,085.8% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,177,557 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,671,634,000 after purchasing an additional 12,122,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Amazon.com by 21.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 57,908,424 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $11,017,657,000 after purchasing an additional 10,176,835 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Amazon.com

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.