Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $217.73 and last traded at $217.33, with a volume of 5794202 shares. The stock had previously closed at $213.44.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on AMZN shares. Maxim Group raised their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $251.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research initiated coverage on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $260.00 target price for the company. Redburn Atlantic lifted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Moffett Nathanson lifted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.20.

Amazon.com Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $196.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $187.78. The stock has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 47.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other 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 directly owns 24,912 shares in the company, valued at $4,958,982.72. This represents a 4.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.85, for a total transaction of $625,790,203.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 917,416,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $191,602,535,437.60. The trade was a 0.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,030,183 shares of company stock worth $1,252,883,795 over the last three months. 10.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dantai Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 10.6% during the third quarter. Dantai Capital Ltd now owns 30,415 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,667,000 after purchasing an additional 2,925 shares in the last quarter. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the third quarter valued at about $239,000. Oriental Harbor Investment Fund bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the third quarter valued at about $60,957,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 13.4% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 17,405 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $3,243,000 after purchasing an additional 2,054 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Amazon.com by 0.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,156,540 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $8,843,714,000 after acquiring an additional 257,072 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.