Wedbush Reiterates Outperform Rating for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by Wedbush in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $340.00 price target on the e-commerce giant’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective points to a potential upside of 46.28% from the stock’s previous close.

AMZN has been the topic of several other research reports. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, October 31st. President Capital increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $280.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Amazon.com from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. UBS Group set a $310.00 price objective on Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Amazon.com from $272.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $296.11.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMZN traded down $1.98 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $232.44. 16,503,259 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 45,136,934. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Amazon.com has a twelve month low of $161.38 and a twelve month high of $258.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $227.92 and a 200 day moving average of $223.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.37.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $180.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.53 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 23.62% and a net margin of 11.06%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.43 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 4,784 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.71, for a total value of $1,113,284.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 498,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,931,933.22. This trade represents a 0.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.61, for a total transaction of $280,316.57. Following the sale, the director directly owned 26,148 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,925,398.28. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 79,734 shares of company stock valued at $18,493,717. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMZN. Fairway Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 113.2% in the third quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 113 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Carderock Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Amazon.com during the second quarter worth $27,000. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Amazon.com by 81.9% in the second quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 211 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ryan Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.