Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Down 1.3% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) dropped 1.3% on Monday after Zacks Research downgraded the stock from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating. The stock traded as low as $250.74 and last traded at $253.54. Approximately 33,055,119 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 31% from the average session volume of 47,614,598 shares. The stock had previously closed at $256.78.

Several other analysts have also commented on the company. UBS Group set a $318.00 price objective on Amazon.com and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Arete Research increased their target price on Amazon.com from $301.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $320.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. Fifty-six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.26.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Andrew Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $5,180,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,235,766 shares in the company, valued at approximately $579,085,751.66. The trade was a 0.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Brian Olsavsky sold 6,172 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $28,427,674.17. This represents a 5.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 71,589 shares of company stock worth $18,568,785. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

More Amazon.com News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic stake could create substantial value: Anthropic is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering and expects another quarter of adjusted operating profit. Amazon has invested approximately $13 billion in the AI company and could benefit from a higher valuation of its stake, in addition to increased demand for AWS infrastructure. What the Anthropic IPO Means for Amazon and Alphabet Investors
• Positive Sentiment: AI and cloud expansion remains a major growth theme: Amazon is expanding U.S. AI infrastructure with Wiwynn, while reports indicate Amazon could purchase as much as $60 billion of Qualcomm AI chips. Salesforce’s expanded AWS partnership also supports the case for enterprise AI demand. Amazon Partners with Wiwynn to Expand U.S. AI Infrastructure Capacity
• Positive Sentiment: Retail and consumer services are expanding: Alexa+ launched in India with Hindi-language support, and Amazon plans more than 1,000 same-day delivery facilities by 2031. These initiatives could strengthen Prime engagement and accelerate delivery capabilities. Amazon launches Alexa+ in India with Hindi support

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMZN. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its stake in Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,272,397,000 after purchasing an additional 98,090,585 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $22,218,775,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $16,341,405,000. Amundi grew its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 63,822,242 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $15,211,393,000 after buying an additional 2,421,739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 59,604,857 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $13,757,993,000 after buying an additional 1,879,630 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Amazon.com Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $255.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $244.98. The stock has a market cap of $2.68 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.44.

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

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc is a global technology and e-commerce company that operates online marketplaces and provides a broad range of consumer products and services. Its retail business sells merchandise directly to customers and enables third-party sellers to offer products through Amazon’s websites and applications. The company also operates physical stores and provides services such as digital content, subscriptions, and consumer devices, including Kindle and Echo products.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides cloud computing, storage, database, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technology services to businesses, governments, and organizations.