Amazon.com’s (AMZN) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $250.00 target price on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on AMZN. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Amazon.com from $224.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Moffett Nathanson lifted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Amazon.com presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $260.20.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of AMZN stock opened at $229.15 on Friday. Amazon.com has a one year low of $151.61 and a one year high of $242.52. The company has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 49.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $226.51 and a 200-day moving average of $200.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its 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 net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. Equities research analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 5.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In related news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.75, for a total transaction of $619,497,843.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 914,420,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $189,056,461,944.50. This trade represents a 0.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 5,502 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.81, for a total transaction of $1,132,366.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 3,026,212 shares of company stock valued at $625,666,424. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Amazon.com by 20,897.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 39,135,449 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $72,921,080,000 after purchasing an additional 38,949,065 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 17,054.5% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,088,589 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,652,116,000 after purchasing an additional 12,018,120 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 82,457.3% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 11,405,294 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,125,148,000 after buying an additional 11,391,479 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $66,926,008,000 after buying an additional 11,370,309 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Amazon.com by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 199,915,046 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $37,116,341,000 after buying an additional 6,545,944 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

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.