Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 837,309 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 31% compared to the typical volume of 641,524 call options.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 19,872 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.30, for a total transaction of $4,000,233.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,148,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $432,532,102.20. This represents a 0.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.98, for a total transaction of $512,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 517,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $105,984,909. The trade was a 0.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 102,037 shares of company stock worth $20,531,075 in the last quarter. 9.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $158,348,557,000 after acquiring an additional 8,913,959 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 328,464,225 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $72,061,766,000 after acquiring an additional 1,725,664 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 204,930,426 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $44,837,256,000 after acquiring an additional 5,015,380 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 182,813,905 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $40,107,544,000 after acquiring an additional 4,087,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,266,582,000. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $306.00 to $250.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.81.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of AMZN opened at $223.30 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $202.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $208.86. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Amazon.com has a 1-year low of $151.61 and a 1-year high of $242.52.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $155.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.96 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 24.14%. Amazon.com’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.