Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Trading Down 3.8% Following Analyst Downgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock price was down 3.8% during trading on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $212.00 to $207.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as low as $228.50 and last traded at $229.84. Approximately 35,457,823 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 4% from the average daily volume of 34,073,523 shares. The stock had previously closed at $238.83.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on AMZN. Sanford C. Bernstein upped 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. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $236.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $246.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $255.47.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $735,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 524,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,159,070. The trade was a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.85, for a total value of $1,000,077.35. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,273,459.55. The trade was a 4.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,026,212 shares of company stock valued at $625,666,424 over the last quarter. 10.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

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

Amazon.com Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $226.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $200.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.15.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.34. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.3 EPS 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.