Wedbush Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Amazon.com Earnings

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) – Equities researchers at Wedbush dropped their FY2024 earnings estimates for shares of Amazon.com in a note issued to investors on Monday, January 27th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now anticipates that the e-commerce giant will post earnings of $5.40 per share for the year, down from their prior estimate of $6.80. Wedbush currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Amazon.com’s current full-year earnings is $5.39 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Amazon.com’s Q4 2024 earnings at $1.62 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $1.49 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $1.52 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $1.68 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.01 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $6.71 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $7.96 EPS.

AMZN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Pivotal Research began coverage on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $260.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $224.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.46.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMZN opened at $238.15 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $220.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $197.72. Amazon.com has a 1-year low of $151.61 and a 1-year high of $241.77. The firm has a market cap of $2.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.14.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,260 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.19, for a total value of $3,054,899.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 349,261 shares in the company, valued at $69,918,559.59. This trade represents a 4.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 5,502 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.81, for a total value of $1,132,366.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,911 shares in the company, valued at $106,797,072.91. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,032,344 shares of company stock worth $1,253,456,822 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 11,370,309 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 3.4% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 6,545,944 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.5% during the second 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. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 3.6% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 57,833,954 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $10,776,201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,984,592 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,308,094 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $10,678,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,663 shares in the last quarter. 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.