Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Receives “Market Outperform” Rating from Citizens Jmp

Citizens Jmp reissued their market outperform rating on shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Citizens Jmp currently has a $315.00 price objective on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on AMZN. Roth Capital increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target (up from $275.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. TD Securities raised shares of Amazon.com to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $298.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Amazon.com from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Fifty-seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $312.79.

Amazon.com Stock Up 3.0%

Shares of AMZN opened at $254.96 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $251.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $235.73. Amazon.com has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $278.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.46.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by $1.15. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 19.92% and a net margin of 12.22%.The company had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.59 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amazon.com news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.53, for a total transaction of $2,489,273.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,060,750.70. This trade represents a 18.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,467 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.40, for a total transaction of $4,074,007.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,729,480.60. This represents a 52.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 have sold a total of 175,274 shares of company stock valued at $46,621,204 over the last three months. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Trust Asset Management LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 3.3% in the second quarter. Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 107,563 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 3,414 shares during the period. First Community Trust NA boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 2.5% during the second quarter. First Community Trust NA now owns 12,383 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,951,000 after buying an additional 303 shares during the period. Walker Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 4.3% in the second quarter. Walker Asset Management LLC now owns 9,249 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,204,000 after buying an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Ballast Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 25.3% in the second quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 23,220 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,534,000 after buying an additional 4,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lee Kelleher & Klein Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter valued at $207,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Citizens JMP reaffirmed its market outperform rating on Amazon and lifted its price target to $315, implying meaningful upside from current levels.
• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies said Amazon offers an attractive way to invest in AI data centers and chips, highlighting upside from AWS, custom silicon, and broader AI infrastructure demand.
• Positive Sentiment: Several reports pointed to Amazon’s growing AI opportunity, including commentary that CEO Andy Jassy sees AI chip sales becoming a potential $50 billion business and that Amazon is increasingly being viewed as a major player in data center chips.
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon also signed a commercial relationship with Electrovaya tied to battery technology for material handling, robotics, and energy storage, reinforcing its automation and logistics ambitions. Electrovaya Announces Commercial Relationship with Amazon
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continued to frame Amazon as well-positioned heading into its earnings cycle thanks to AWS momentum and resilient Prime Day spending.
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon AWS senior vice president Dave Brown is leaving after 19 years, but the company moved quickly to replace him with another senior executive, limiting the immediate business impact.
• Negative Sentiment: Some headlines flagged concern over Amazon’s aggressive AI spending and debt financing, including its planned $25 billion bond sale and broader questions about whether hyperscaler capex can be sustained.
• Negative Sentiment: There were also reports that New York’s pause on new AI data centers and other potential state-level restrictions could slow parts of the AI infrastructure buildout that supports Amazon’s cloud growth story.

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.