Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Down 1.5% – Here’s What Happened

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell 1.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $255.02 and last traded at $256.26. Approximately 35,654,552 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 27% from the average daily volume of 48,630,262 shares. The stock had previously closed at $260.28.

Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com

Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Nvidia partnership reinforces AWS’s AI growth outlook. Amazon will reportedly add 2 million Nvidia GPUs to its data centers by 2028, bringing its total planned commitment to roughly 3 million chips. The investment reflects surging demand for AI computing and could support future AWS revenue. TechCrunch article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain bullish on Amazon’s long-term prospects. Citizens reiterated a Market Outperform rating and a $315 price target, while broader coverage points to strong AI-cloud momentum and Amazon’s potential to become one of the first companies to reach $1 trillion in annual sales. Yahoo Finance article
• Positive Sentiment: New growth initiatives could broaden AWS monetization. AWS acquired DuckLabs, the team behind open-source analytics database DuckDB, to strengthen cloud data and analytics offerings. Amazon and Walmart are also expanding onsite advertising, potentially increasing high-margin advertising revenue. DuckLabs acquisition article
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly negotiating to host Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 model. A revenue-sharing agreement could add AI workloads to AWS, but the talks face uncertainty from potential U.S. restrictions involving the Chinese AI company. Reuters article
• Negative Sentiment: Heavy AI infrastructure spending is weighing on cash flow. Although AWS growth is accelerating, Amazon’s expanding data-center investment has pushed free cash flow sharply lower. Investors want evidence that the multibillion-dollar spending program will produce sufficient returns and eventually rebuild cash generation.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple senior executives sold shares. CEO Andy Jassy, AWS CEO Matt Garman, CFO Brian Olsavsky and other executives collectively sold more than $15 million of stock. The transactions were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, reducing their significance, but the cluster of sales may still weigh on sentiment. Insider sales article

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AMZN. Telsey Advisory Group set a $335.00 price target on Amazon.com and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Rosenblatt Securities began coverage on Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $335.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (up from $355.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $322.39.

Amazon.com Stock Down 1.5%

The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $239.94. The company has a market capitalization of $2.76 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.45.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,343 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total value of $606,860.43. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,024,217.80. This trade represents a 1.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Brian T. Olsavsky sold 6,172 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.31, for a total transaction of $1,606,633.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,427,674.17. The trade was a 5.35% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 71,589 shares of company stock worth $18,580,205. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,036,091 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $885,478,000 after acquiring an additional 397,007 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 25,045 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $5,495,000 after purchasing an additional 986 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 2,016,869 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $442,481,000 after purchasing an additional 54,987 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE boosted its position in Amazon.com by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 28,975 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,357,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at $2,153,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.

Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.