Walter Public Investments Inc. Buys New Position in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Walter Public Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 70,155 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock, valued at approximately $15,404,000. Amazon.com accounts for about 2.5% of Walter Public Investments Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Amazon.com by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 849,721,601 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $186,420,422,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447,045 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.4% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 374,097,285 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $82,073,203,000 after buying an additional 5,163,208 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 216,717,657 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $47,332,625,000 after buying an additional 3,721,658 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Amazon.com in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,438,011,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 0.3% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 97,379,134 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $18,527,354,000 after acquiring an additional 302,858 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on AMZN shares. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com to $315.00 in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $305.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Amazon.com from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Susquehanna set a $300.00 price objective on Amazon.com and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 target price (up previously from $275.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $295.91.

Amazon.com Price Performance

AMZN stock opened at $239.30 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.80, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $233.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $229.67. Amazon.com, Inc. has a twelve month low of $161.38 and a twelve month high of $258.60.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.38. Amazon.com had a net margin of 11.06% and a return on equity of 23.62%. The firm had revenue of $180.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $177.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. Amazon.com’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% 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 year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 19,872 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.94, for a total transaction of $4,311,031.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,208,310 shares in the company, valued at approximately $479,070,771.40. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Keith Brian Alexander sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.00, for a total value of $209,700.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,170 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,670,610. This represents a 11.15% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 49,561 shares of company stock valued at $10,989,862. 9.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Amazon.com News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI — a deal that would deepen Amazon’s AI relationships, drive AWS capacity demand and signal leadership in the AI era; this is being read as a long‑term growth catalyst. Amazon in Talks to Invest Up to $50 Billion in OpenAI
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and big managers remain supportive — Telsey Advisory reiterated an “outperform” rating with a $300 price target and Tsai Capital highlighted AMZN as a high‑conviction idea, both underpinning bullish investor sentiment. Telsey Reaffirms Outperform on Amazon
• Positive Sentiment: AWS continues to land enterprise deals and collaborations (example: NTT DATA strategic agreement), which supports recurring cloud revenue growth independent of retail cycles. NTT DATA Signs Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is closing its Go and Fresh physical stores and refocusing grocery around online/Whole Foods — a strategic retrenchment that cuts cash burn but reduces brick‑and‑mortar exposure. Amazon is closing its futuristic Go and Fresh stores
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/sector context: Microsoft’s post‑earnings pullback highlights hyperscaler valuation sensitivity — investors may reprice capital‑intensive AI buildouts, a theme that affects AMZN too. Microsoft Drops After Earnings—Why the Bull Case Holds
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon announced further mass layoffs (about 16,000 corporate roles total; ~1,400 in Seattle, 700 in Bellevue) — cost savings can boost margins but large cuts raise execution, morale and public‑relations risks. Amazon Job Cuts Deliver Another Blow to Seattle Area’s Tech Workforce
• Negative Sentiment: Reputational/regulatory risk: reports that Amazon’s AI training datasets contained high volumes of illegal/abusive content could prompt compliance costs, scrutiny, or slower AI rollouts. Amazon Stock Falls as AI Training Data Reveals “High Volume” of Child Abuse Content
• Negative Sentiment: Some large investors have trimmed AMZN positions (reports of Viking/other manager selling), and Bank of America recently lowered its price target — signals that institutional positioning may be shifting and could pressure near‑term sentiment. Billionaire Ole Andreas Halvorsen Dumped His Stakes in Nvidia and Amazon Bank of America Lowers Amazon Price Target

Amazon.com Profile

Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.

Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.