Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Sells 3,292 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 4.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 71,481 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 3,292 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts for about 1.0% of Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $13,600,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Perritt Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Amazon.com by 72.7% during the fourth quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 190 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the first quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the first quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMZN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday. Roth Capital set a $250.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Amazon.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $255.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $244.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. One investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Amazon.com has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $262.87.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 4,273,237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.81, for a total transaction of $960,666,409.97. Following the transaction, the insider owned 897,722,088 shares in the company, valued at $201,816,902,603.28. This represents a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 25,096,253 shares of company stock worth $5,673,745,409 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

AMZN opened at $230.98 on Friday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $161.38 and a 52-week high of $242.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $2.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $221.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $208.69.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.37. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.54% and a return on equity of 23.84%. The firm had revenue of $167.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current fiscal 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.