The Goldman Sachs Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its price objective raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $240.00 to $255.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

AMZN has been the subject of several other research reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Amazon.com from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Raymond James upped their price target on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Maxim Group upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $251.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $260.20.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $229.15 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $226.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $200.30. The company has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.07, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.09. Amazon.com has a one year low of $151.61 and a one year high of $242.52.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.34. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. On average, research analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 5.3 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.06, for a total transaction of $246,237.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 24,912 shares in the company, valued at $4,958,982.72. This represents a 4.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 5,502 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.81, for a total transaction of $1,132,366.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,911 shares in the company, valued at approximately $106,797,072.91. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,026,212 shares of company stock valued at $625,666,424. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rench Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 7.9% during the third quarter. Rench Wealth Management Inc. now owns 50,403 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $9,392,000 after purchasing an additional 3,703 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 184,594 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $34,395,000 after acquiring an additional 16,392 shares during the period. Blankinship & Foster LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 216.4% in the third quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC now owns 6,930 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,291,000 after acquiring an additional 4,740 shares in the last quarter. Umpqua Bank increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 0.4% during the third quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 35,120 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,544,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the period. Finally, One Wealth Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth about $4,270,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

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.