Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Trading Up 2.9% – Here’s Why

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock price was up 2.9% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $245.73 and last traded at $244.39. 73,603,799 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 53% from the average session volume of 48,053,941 shares. The stock had previously closed at $237.50.

Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated a Buy rating and $310 price target, arguing that Amazon’s Alexa AI and Prime Day could boost shopping engagement and AI adoption. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly exploring selling its Trainium AI chips directly to outside customers, a move that could expand AWS beyond internal use and strengthen its challenge to Nvidia in AI infrastructure. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: AWS added another enterprise win as Zelis selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider and is migrating workloads to Amazon’s cloud, reinforcing AWS demand and AI-services traction. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon also continues to win business partnerships around its AI stack, including expanded integrations and collaborations tied to AWS and Bedrock, which support the view that cloud and AI are still key growth drivers. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is tightening marketplace presentation rules to give big brands more control over product listings, a change that could improve retailer relationships but is not an immediate earnings catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are still watching an FTC probe into Amazon’s advertising practices, with reports suggesting potential civil penalties could be significant if a case moves forward. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Separate reporting on Amazon worker complaints and regulatory scrutiny adds some headline risk, though these stories appear less immediately stock-moving than the AI and analyst upgrades. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on AMZN. UBS Group set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Maxim Group increased their price target on Amazon.com from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $296.00 to $332.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.78.

Amazon.com Stock Up 2.9%

The stock has a market cap of $2.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $255.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $233.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $1.15. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 19.92% and a net margin of 12.22%.The company had revenue of $181.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.59 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.19, for a total value of $266,190.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 485,527 shares in the company, valued at $129,242,432.13. This trade represents a 0.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.53, for a total transaction of $2,489,273.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,060,750.70. The trade was a 18.37% 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 195,774 shares of company stock valued at $51,614,434. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMZN. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 397,007 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Amazon.com by 4.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.8% in 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 raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 5.5% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $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.