Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Trading Up 1.1% – Still a Buy?

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) traded up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $175.52 and last traded at $172.55. 24,223,769 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 41% from the average session volume of 41,044,323 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.66.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on AMZN shares. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $260.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Benchmark boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Phillip Securities cut shares of Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $258.19.

Amazon.com Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $205.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $208.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.43, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.39.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In related news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 19,212 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $4,178,610.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,950 shares in the company, valued at $10,864,125. The trade was a 27.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.99, for a total value of $469,975.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 509,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $95,776,017.26. This represents a 0.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 104,798 shares of company stock valued at $23,341,803 in the last 90 days. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMZN. Rench Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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. Blankinship & Foster LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 216.4% in the 3rd quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC now owns 6,930 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,291,000 after buying an additional 4,740 shares in the last quarter. Umpqua Bank lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 35,120 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,544,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. One Wealth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter valued at $4,270,000. Finally, Floyd Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at $4,494,000. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.