Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Wedbush from $250.00 to $260.00 in a research note issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 17.06% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on AMZN. 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 research report on Friday, December 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Monday, October 7th. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Amazon.com from $224.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $243.67.

Amazon.com Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $222.11 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $214.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.73. The stock has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 47.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.14. 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 has a 12 month low of $146.15 and a 12 month high of $233.00.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. Research analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 5.29 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.06, for a total value of $246,237.22. Following the sale, the director now owns 24,912 shares in the company, valued at $4,958,982.72. This trade represents a 4.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 5,004 shares of the company’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 transaction, the director now owns 99,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,864,290.60. This trade represents a 4.79 % 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 corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Chico Wealth RIA increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.8% in the second quarter. Chico Wealth RIA now owns 2,187 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $423,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 26,678 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $5,155,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. BigSur Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. BigSur Wealth Management LLC now owns 36,970 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $7,144,000 after purchasing an additional 4,800 shares during the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,474,000. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 310,657 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $58,382,000 after purchasing an additional 4,458 shares during the last quarter. 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.