Legal & General Group Plc Reduces Position in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 55,959,088 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 309,436 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up approximately 2.9% of Legal & General Group Plc’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $12,916,477,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Amazon.com during the second quarter worth $27,438,011,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Amazon.com during the first quarter worth $11,674,091,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Amazon.com by 22,085.8% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,177,557 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,671,634,000 after acquiring an additional 12,122,668 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Amazon.com by 21.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 57,908,424 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $11,017,657,000 after acquiring an additional 10,176,835 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Amazon.com by 11.3% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 94,284,962 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $20,702,362,000 after acquiring an additional 9,583,217 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s latest AI and logistics push is a major bullish catalyst: the company unveiled an upgraded warehouse robot and is backing a €10 billion expansion of its European fulfillment network, which should support faster shipping, lower costs, and better operating efficiency. Reuters: Amazon unveils new AI warehouse robot in $12 billion Europe push
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon Web Services continues to win large contracts, including Pinterest’s $4 billion cloud deal through 2031, reinforcing AWS’s role as a key AI infrastructure beneficiary. Reuters: Pinterest signs $4 billion Amazon deal for cloud services
• Positive Sentiment: Several recent market commentary pieces highlighted Amazon’s growing AI, cloud, and advertising opportunities, with analysts continuing to frame AMZN as a long-duration AI winner. MarketBeat: Amazon.com stock and related coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon’s CEO Douglas Herrington sold 1,000 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan. The sale is small, but insider selling can still create some short-term caution. MarketBeat: Amazon.com insider trades
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon is facing fresh scrutiny over its aggressive AI spending, with employees publicly criticizing massive data-center investment while layoffs continue. That keeps cost and labor concerns front and center. CNBC: Amazon engineers in Seattle slam employer for building AI data centers while laying off staffers
• Negative Sentiment: Rising shipping costs tied to Middle East conflict could pressure Amazon’s retail margins ahead of Prime Day, adding another near-term headwind. Yahoo Finance: Iran war raises shipping costs ahead of Amazon Prime Day
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon also faces ongoing regulatory and reputational pressure from data-center pushback and privacy-related concerns around Ring, which may weigh on sentiment even if the long-term business outlook remains strong. Reuters: Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMZN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $298.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 target price (up from $280.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $280.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.52.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $246.03 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $249.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $232.98. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.00 and a 52-week high of $278.56.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $1.15. The firm had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.59 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.40, for a total transaction of $4,074,007.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,729,480.60. This trade represents a 52.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,352 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total transaction of $8,621,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,175,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $598,335,650. The trade was a 1.42% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 195,774 shares of company stock valued at $51,614,434. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.

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.