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

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its price objective raised by stock analysts at Arete Research from $285.00 to $301.00 in a report released on Thursday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock. Arete Research’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 14.02% from the company’s current price.

AMZN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Amazon.com from $260.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Moffett Nathanson increased their price target on Amazon.com from $283.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Amazon.com from $304.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Citigroup increased their price target on Amazon.com from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Wedbush decreased their price target on Amazon.com from $340.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.21.

Amazon.com Trading Up 3.5%

Shares of AMZN opened at $263.99 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $218.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $226.25. Amazon.com has a one year low of $178.85 and a one year high of $264.50. The company has a market capitalization of $2.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by ($0.02). Amazon.com had a return on equity of 21.87% and a net margin of 10.83%.The company had revenue of $213.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.86 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 7.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 20,500 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $5,022,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 499,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,465,945. The trade was a 3.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 10,649 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.43, for a total value of $2,187,624.07. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 41,190 shares in the company, valued at $8,461,661.70. The trade was a 20.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 124,186 shares of company stock valued at $27,826,739. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $158,348,557,000 after acquiring an additional 8,913,959 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 388,653,121 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $89,708,913,000 after acquiring an additional 6,971,680 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 225,120,994 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $51,753,622,000 after acquiring an additional 2,479,324 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,868,735,000. Finally, Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 27,376.7% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,272,397,000 after acquiring an additional 98,090,585 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amazon.com News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Major customer win for AWS custom chips — Meta signed a multiyear deal to deploy “tens of millions” of AWS Graviton5 cores for agentic AI workloads, a multibillion‑dollar contract that directly boosts AWS chip revenue and validates Amazon’s custom silicon strategy. Meta strikes deal with Amazon’s cloud unit
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts lifting targets and reaffirming buys — Multiple firms have raised price targets and reiterated buy/overweight ratings, signaling stronger sell‑side conviction ahead of earnings and supporting the rally. Top Analysts Raise Amazon Stock (AMZN) Price Targets
• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Anthropic partnership locks long‑term AWS demand — Coverage highlights a bigger Anthropic commitment (and recent $5B deal), which implies sustained, high‑margin cloud revenue but also sizable compute and capex commitments from Amazon. Amazon and Anthropic $5 Billion Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon‑backed X‑Energy IPO rally highlights ecosystem wins — The strong debut of X‑Energy (an Amazon‑backed SMR startup) underscores investor appetite for companies tied to AI power/data‑center infrastructure and reflects Amazon’s strategic ecosystem bets. X‑Energy Nasdaq Debut
• Neutral Sentiment: Upcoming Q1 earnings (Apr 29) are a short‑term volatility trigger — Consensus expects follow‑through on AWS strength, so results and margin/capex commentary will drive next moves. Earnings Preview: Expected Move
• Neutral Sentiment: Operational changes and selective layoffs/role renames (e.g., “builder” titles) could modestly affect culture and execution but are not immediate share‑price drivers. Amazon replaces job titles
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by CEO — Recent disclosure shows CEO stock sales (~$7.9M), which can create short‑term investor concern over insider timing even if routine. CEO Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/regulatory risk — California AG alleges Amazon pressured vendors on pricing in unsealed filings, a potential multi‑jurisdictional legal overhang that could create headline risk and fines. California price‑fixing allegations

Amazon.com Company 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.