Amazon.com’s (AMZN) Buy Rating Reiterated at Benchmark

Benchmark reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $200.00 price objective on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on AMZN. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Telsey Advisory Group restated an outperform rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $180.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $205.13.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of AMZN opened at $179.62 on Wednesday. Amazon.com has a 1-year low of $101.15 and a 1-year high of $189.77. The company has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.94, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.16. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $177.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.19. Amazon.com had a net margin of 5.29% and a return on equity of 16.61%. The firm had revenue of $169.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 4.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 20,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.99, for a total value of $3,433,798.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 514,131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,397,128.69. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Amazon.com news, CEO Adam Selipsky sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.38, for a total transaction of $90,690.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 130,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,688,228. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 20,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.99, for a total transaction of $3,433,798.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 514,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $87,397,128.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,214,010 shares of company stock worth $5,505,889,146 in the last quarter. 10.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Cooksen Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 54.3% during the 3rd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 267 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the period. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 45.0% during the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 277 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Strid Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 299,959 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 1,988 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

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.