Maxim Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its target price raised by Maxim Group from $251.00 to $260.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on AMZN. Roth Mkm increased their target price on Amazon.com from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank increased their target price on Amazon.com from $245.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $236.00 target price (up previously from $230.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Amazon.com from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $225.00 to $183.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $244.11.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN traded up $11.53 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $197.93. 99,687,847 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 41,329,359. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.10. Amazon.com has a one year low of $136.47 and a one year high of $201.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $184.82 and a 200 day moving average of $183.75.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $158.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 21.39% and a net margin of 7.35%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 4.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Brian T. Olsavsky sold 14,600 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $2,628,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 49,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,820,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Brian T. Olsavsky sold 14,600 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $2,628,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 49,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,820,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 3,791 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.04, for a total value of $686,322.64. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 121,461 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,989,299.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 50,855 shares of company stock worth $9,215,048. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Amazon.com by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 785,811,114 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $141,744,609,000 after buying an additional 14,724,687 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Amazon.com by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 86,982,857 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $15,689,968,000 after buying an additional 6,810,145 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Amazon.com by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 69,686,374 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $13,466,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,042,177 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Amazon.com by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 67,745,972 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $13,091,909,000 after purchasing an additional 289,532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Amazon.com by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 56,666,183 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $10,221,446,000 after purchasing an additional 295,132 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.