Maxim Group Initiates Coverage on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Analysts at Maxim Group began coverage on shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $218.00 price target on the e-commerce giant’s stock. Maxim Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 21.64% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on AMZN. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $185.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.80.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMZN opened at $179.22 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $177.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $156.52. Amazon.com has a 1-year low of $101.15 and a 1-year high of $189.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 61.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.19. Amazon.com had a net margin of 5.29% and a return on equity of 16.61%. The company had revenue of $169.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 4.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Adam Selipsky sold 500 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.72, for a total transaction of $77,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 116,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,150,723.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Adam Selipsky sold 500 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.72, for a total transaction of $77,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 116,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,150,723.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 5,998,849 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.16, for a total transaction of $1,020,764,145.84. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 982,252,968 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $167,140,165,034.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,213,510 shares of company stock valued at $5,505,798,456. Corporate insiders own 12.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Register Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 14.3% in the third quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,263 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $669,000 after buying an additional 657 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 1.0% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 14,613 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,858,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,260 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $799,000 after buying an additional 675 shares during the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 71,576 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $10,875,000 after buying an additional 2,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nicholas Company Inc. raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.9% in the third quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. now owns 705,065 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $89,628,000 after buying an additional 26,465 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amazon.com Company 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.