Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock Price Down 2.9% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell 2.9% during trading on Wednesday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $272.00 to $253.00. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as low as $178.85 and last traded at $181.95. 15,764,843 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 41,730,427 shares. The stock had previously closed at $187.39.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AMZN. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $257.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $273.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $207.00 to $203.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Maxim Group boosted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $260.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Amazon.com from $287.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and forty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.50.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.99, for a total transaction of $469,975.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 509,474 shares in the company, valued at $95,776,017.26. This represents a 0.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 8,833 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.47, for a total value of $1,965,077.51. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,647,456.60. This trade represents a 6.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 104,798 shares of company stock valued at $23,341,803. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Amazon.com by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 823,360,597 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $180,637,081,000 after buying an additional 17,635,391 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Amazon.com by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $66,926,008,000 after buying an additional 11,370,309 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Amazon.com by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 328,464,225 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $72,061,766,000 after buying an additional 1,725,664 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Amazon.com by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 204,930,426 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $44,837,256,000 after buying an additional 5,015,380 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Amazon.com by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 182,813,905 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $40,107,544,000 after buying an additional 4,087,933 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Amazon.com Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $191.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.74.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.34. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 24.25% and a net margin of 9.29%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Amazon.com

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.