Hartford Financial Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Hartford Financial Management Inc. lifted its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 12.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 20,670 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,221 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts for approximately 1.2% of Hartford Financial Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Hartford Financial Management Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $4,539,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,036,091 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $885,478,000 after buying an additional 397,007 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 25,045 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,495,000 after acquiring an additional 986 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in Amazon.com by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 2,016,869 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $442,481,000 after acquiring an additional 54,987 shares during the period. Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 28,975 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $6,357,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,153,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AMZN. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 1st. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $295.00 price objective (up previously from $270.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $295.91.

Amazon.com News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI — a deal that would deepen Amazon’s AI relationships, drive AWS capacity demand and signal leadership in the AI era; this is being read as a long‑term growth catalyst. Amazon in Talks to Invest Up to $50 Billion in OpenAI
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and big managers remain supportive — Telsey Advisory reiterated an “outperform” rating with a $300 price target and Tsai Capital highlighted AMZN as a high‑conviction idea, both underpinning bullish investor sentiment. Telsey Reaffirms Outperform on Amazon
• Positive Sentiment: AWS continues to land enterprise deals and collaborations (example: NTT DATA strategic agreement), which supports recurring cloud revenue growth independent of retail cycles. NTT DATA Signs Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is closing its Go and Fresh physical stores and refocusing grocery around online/Whole Foods — a strategic retrenchment that cuts cash burn but reduces brick‑and‑mortar exposure. Amazon is closing its futuristic Go and Fresh stores
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/sector context: Microsoft’s post‑earnings pullback highlights hyperscaler valuation sensitivity — investors may reprice capital‑intensive AI buildouts, a theme that affects AMZN too. Microsoft Drops After Earnings—Why the Bull Case Holds
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon announced further mass layoffs (about 16,000 corporate roles total; ~1,400 in Seattle, 700 in Bellevue) — cost savings can boost margins but large cuts raise execution, morale and public‑relations risks. Amazon Job Cuts Deliver Another Blow to Seattle Area’s Tech Workforce
• Negative Sentiment: Reputational/regulatory risk: reports that Amazon’s AI training datasets contained high volumes of illegal/abusive content could prompt compliance costs, scrutiny, or slower AI rollouts. Amazon Stock Falls as AI Training Data Reveals “High Volume” of Child Abuse Content
• Negative Sentiment: Some large investors have trimmed AMZN positions (reports of Viking/other manager selling), and Bank of America recently lowered its price target — signals that institutional positioning may be shifting and could pressure near‑term sentiment. Billionaire Ole Andreas Halvorsen Dumped His Stakes in Nvidia and Amazon Bank of America Lowers Amazon Price Target

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.22, for a total value of $583,050.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 505,934 shares in the company, valued at $117,993,927.48. This represents a 0.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Keith Brian Alexander sold 900 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.00, for a total value of $209,700.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,170 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,670,610. This represents a 11.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 49,561 shares of company stock valued at $10,989,862. 9.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Amazon.com Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of AMZN stock opened at $239.30 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Amazon.com, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $161.38 and a fifty-two week high of $258.60. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $233.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $229.64.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $177.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.43 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.