HSBC Raises Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Price Target to $270.00

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at HSBC from $225.00 to $270.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock. HSBC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 24.40% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on AMZN. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $236.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.33.

Amazon.com Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMZN traded down $1.89 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $217.05. The stock had a trading volume of 10,379,219 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,597,088. The business’s 50 day moving average is $216.20 and its 200-day moving average is $195.42. The company has a market cap of $2.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 46.48, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.14. Amazon.com has a 52 week low of $149.91 and a 52 week high of $233.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. The firm had revenue of $158.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 5.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 5,004 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.85, for a total transaction of $1,000,049.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 99,396 shares in the company, valued at $19,864,290.60. This trade represents a 4.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,260 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.19, for a total value of $3,054,899.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 349,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,918,559.59. This represents a 4.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,032,344 shares of company stock valued at $1,253,456,822. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMZN. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Amazon.com by 20,897.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 39,135,449 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $72,921,080,000 after purchasing an additional 38,949,065 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 82,457.3% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 11,405,294 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,125,148,000 after buying an additional 11,391,479 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Amazon.com by 3.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $66,926,008,000 after buying an additional 11,370,309 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 3.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 199,915,046 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $37,116,341,000 after buying an additional 6,545,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 13,606.7% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 3,932,580 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $759,971,000 after buying an additional 3,903,889 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amazon.com Company Profile

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.