Amazon.com Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 837,309 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 31% compared to the average volume of 641,524 call options.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Amazon.com stock opened at $223.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.33. Amazon.com has a one year low of $151.61 and a one year high of $242.52. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $202.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $209.01.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.21. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 24.14% and a net margin of 10.14%. The business had revenue of $155.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. Amazon.com’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 6.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.98, for a total transaction of $512,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 517,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $105,984,909. The trade was a 0.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,695 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.79, for a total value of $541,129.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at $24,050,626.20. This trade represents a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 102,037 shares of company stock valued at $20,531,075. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth about $27,266,582,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Amazon.com during the first quarter worth about $11,674,091,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 21,420.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30,245,061 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $5,754,425,000 after acquiring an additional 30,104,520 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Amazon.com by 36.8% in the fourth 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 period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Amazon.com by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 823,360,597 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $180,637,081,000 after buying an additional 17,635,391 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMZN. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Amazon.com from $248.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Amazon.com from $306.00 to $250.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Amazon.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and forty-five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.81.

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.