Wedbush Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by investment analysts at Wedbush in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $293.00 price objective on the e-commerce giant’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 26.23% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective (up from $275.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Piper Sandler set a $330.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Arete Research raised their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $301.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, TD Securities raised Amazon.com to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Fifty-seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Amazon.com has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $312.91.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of AMZN opened at $232.11 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $248.26 and its 200 day moving average is $236.32. Amazon.com has a 12-month low of $196.00 and a 12-month high of $278.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market cap of $2.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.46.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The business had revenue of $181.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.59 EPS. Amazon.com’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total value of $5,268,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,205,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $581,042,879.72. This represents a 0.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total transaction of $620,003.94. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 119,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,427,876.40. This trade represents a 1.93% decrease in their position. 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 140,425 shares of company stock worth $37,715,464 in the last ninety days. 8.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Amazon.com by 1.1% in 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 during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 388,653,121 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $89,708,913,000 after acquiring an additional 6,971,680 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 225,120,994 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $51,753,622,000 after acquiring an additional 2,479,324 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,868,735,000. Finally, Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,272,397,000 after purchasing an additional 98,090,585 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Options data and several analyst/commentary pieces suggest traders expect a post-earnings move higher, and multiple firms remain bullish on AMZN heading into the July 30 report. Ahead of Amazon Earnings, Here’s What Barchart Data Says Comes Next for AMZN Stock
• Positive Sentiment: India eased e-commerce export rules, which is a win for Amazon’s international marketplace ambitions and could support long-term growth. India relaxes e-commerce investment rules for exports in win for Amazon
• Positive Sentiment: Several bullish research notes continue to frame AWS, custom silicon, and Amazon’s AI buildout as long-term growth drivers, with some investors arguing the capex surge should ultimately strengthen Amazon’s competitive moat. Amazon: Why The CapEx Surge Makes Me More Bullish, Not Less

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.