Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN Stock: Perpetual Ltd Raises Holdings

Perpetual Ltd grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 75.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 459,613 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 198,262 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up 1.8% of Perpetual Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $114,513,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AMZN. TOP Private Wealth LLC. bought a new position in Amazon.com during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Amazon.com in the second quarter worth $32,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new stake in Amazon.com in the second quarter worth $33,000. Atomic Invest LLC lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 41.2% in the second quarter. Atomic Invest LLC now owns 168 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new stake in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In related news, CFO Brian 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,207 shares in the company, valued at $28,427,674.17. The trade was a 5.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 14,541 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.06, for a total transaction of $3,766,991.46. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 17,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,609,713.64. This represents a 44.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 sold 71,589 shares of company stock valued at $18,580,515. 8.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on AMZN shares. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. HSBC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Fifty-six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $322.53.

Key Amazon.com News

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

• Positive Sentiment: AWS remains the central growth and profit driver. Amazon’s cloud business grew at its fastest pace in 18 quarters during the second quarter, and investors will focus closely on whether that momentum continued. Strong AWS growth could support a higher valuation. Amazon earnings outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to view Amazon as a major beneficiary of AI adoption through AWS, custom chips and related products. The company’s AI initiatives could improve future cash flow, while strong holiday e-commerce demand and a growing advertising business provide additional support. Amazon AI cash flow outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s acquisition of Bee is expanding its consumer AI strategy. New Bee Frontier and Bee Eclipse devices, along with a paid software tier, give the company new opportunities in hardware, subscriptions and AI-assisted shopping. Amazon Bee AI devices
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon has scheduled its third-quarter results and conference call for Oct. 29. The report is likely to be the next major catalyst, particularly for AWS growth, capital expenditures, operating margins and management’s AI investment outlook. Amazon earnings announcement
• Negative Sentiment: Broad technology stocks are under pressure as inflation concerns increase expectations for higher interest rates, prompting investors to favor value and dividend-paying sectors. That market-wide rotation is weighing on mega-cap technology names, including AMZN. Technology sector decline
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Amazon’s roughly $220 billion AI commitment and rising capital expenditures may pressure near-term free cash flow. Capacity constraints and potentially falling AI-compute pricing add to doubts about the return on that spending.
• Negative Sentiment: Elon Musk’s proposal for an “X Shop” or “Grokazon” introduces a potential long-term competitive risk after Amazon blocked some AI shopping agents. The issue could encourage rivals to challenge Amazon’s position in agent-driven commerce. Potential Amazon rival

Amazon.com Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $250.00 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $256.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $251.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $2.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.11, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1-year low of $196.00 and a 1-year high of $287.20.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%. The company had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Amazon.com Profile

Amazon.com, Inc is a global technology and e-commerce company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Originally launched as an online bookstore, the company has expanded into a broad digital marketplace offering consumer products across numerous categories, including electronics, household goods, apparel, groceries and other merchandise. Amazon also sells products under its own brands and provides logistics, fulfillment and delivery services that support its retail operations and third-party sellers.

The company’s principal businesses include online and physical retail, Amazon Web Services (AWS), digital advertising, subscription services and consumer technology.