Violich Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Violich Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,055 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,260 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com comprises about 1.8% of Violich Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Violich Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $13,519,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 61,889 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $11,775,000 after purchasing an additional 2,577 shares during the period. PAX Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. PAX Financial Group LLC now owns 14,519 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,762,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 1,031,367 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $196,228,000 after purchasing an additional 48,118 shares during the period. GPM Growth Investors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. GPM Growth Investors Inc. now owns 53,532 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $10,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038 shares during the period. Finally, First Business Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. now owns 9,169 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,744,000 after buying an additional 515 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.00, for a total value of $542,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 512,050 shares in the company, valued at $111,114,850. This trade represents a 0.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,643,142 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 owned 883,779,901 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,649,402,587.43. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 25,101,037 shares of company stock worth $5,674,726,368. Insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $221.47 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $220.25 and its 200 day moving average is $208.61. Amazon.com, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $161.38 and a fifty-two week high of $242.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.76, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released 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. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 23.84% and a net margin of 10.54%. The business had revenue of $167.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMZN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $245.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Amazon.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $280.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $260.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $262.45.

Amazon.com 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.