Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares gapped down before the market opened on Friday after Oppenheimer lowered their price target on the stock from $250.00 to $245.00. The stock had previously closed at $234.11, but opened at $217.21. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Amazon.com shares last traded at $219.52, with a volume of 30,007,700 shares traded.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on AMZN. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $235.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $280.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $271.00 price objective (up previously from $249.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on Amazon.com from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $262.45.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,643,142 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.43, for a total value of $609,059,211.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 883,779,901 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,649,402,587.43. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 25,099,537 shares of company stock valued at $5,674,394,548 in the last 90 days. 9.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 542,733.6% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 132,641,388 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $29,100,194,000 after purchasing an additional 132,616,953 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth about $27,266,582,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 1st quarter worth about $11,674,091,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Amazon.com by 21,420.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30,245,061 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,754,425,000 after buying an additional 30,104,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its stake in Amazon.com by 36.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 65,709,496 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $14,416,078,000 after buying an additional 17,681,004 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $218.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $209.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.74, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.31.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.37. The company had revenue of $167.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.80 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 10.54%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

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.