Raymond James Issues Positive Forecast for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock Price

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its target price hoisted by analysts at Raymond James from $230.00 to $260.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “strong-buy” rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock. Raymond James’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 12.48% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AMZN. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $245.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $197.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Amazon.com has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.85.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.3 %

Amazon.com stock traded up $5.21 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $231.15. The company had a trading volume of 16,565,375 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,997,848. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $218.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $196.47. Amazon.com has a 1 year low of $151.61 and a 1 year high of $233.00. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 49.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 22.41%. The company’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 4,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.85, for a total transaction of $1,000,077.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 88,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,273,459.55. The trade was a 4.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.85, for a total transaction of $625,790,203.70. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 917,416,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $191,602,535,437.60. This trade represents a 0.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 6,032,344 shares of company stock worth $1,253,456,822. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rench Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Amazon.com by 7.9% in the third quarter. Rench Wealth Management Inc. now owns 50,403 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $9,392,000 after acquiring an additional 3,703 shares in the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 9.7% in the third quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 184,594 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $34,395,000 after acquiring an additional 16,392 shares in the last quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 216.4% in the third quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC now owns 6,930 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,291,000 after acquiring an additional 4,740 shares in the last quarter. Umpqua Bank raised its position in Amazon.com by 0.4% in the third quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 35,120 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,544,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Washington Trust Advisors Inc. raised its position in Amazon.com by 0.4% in the third quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 225,254 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $41,972,000 after acquiring an additional 982 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by 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.