Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Up 3.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock price rose 3.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on the stock from $250.00 to $260.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Amazon.com traded as high as $226.10 and last traded at $221.25. Approximately 50,842,647 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 2% from the average daily volume of 49,942,980 shares. The stock had previously closed at $213.77.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Moffett Nathanson upped their target price on Amazon.com from $283.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group set a $311.00 target price on Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $260.00 target price (down from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $230.00 target price on Amazon.com in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Arete Research upped their target price on Amazon.com from $283.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-three have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.39.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 19,872 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.18, for a total transaction of $4,077,336.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,238,118 shares in the company, valued at $459,217,051.24. This represents a 0.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.50, for a total value of $210,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 520,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $109,535,990.50. This represents a 0.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 72,686 shares of company stock worth $14,899,239 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Broader tech rally after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire lifted Magnificent Seven names, giving Amazon a market tailwind that helped push shares higher. Tech rally after ceasefire
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst optimism: multiple firms bumped up price targets/ratings this week (Cantor Fitzgerald raised its PT to $260; Moffett Nathanson to $288), supporting conviction in Amazon’s AI/AWS story. Cantor Fitzgerald price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: AWS commercial traction: Uber expanded use of AWS Graviton and is trialing Trainium3, signaling continued demand for Amazon’s AI infrastructure and chips. That reinforces AWS revenue visibility. Uber expands AWS use
• Positive Sentiment: Logistics stability: Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service reached a deal keeping roughly 80% of current USPS package volume, removing a near-term operations risk and preserving a key delivery channel. Amazon-USPS deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Deal chatter: reports that Amazon is exploring a ~$9B acquisition of Globalstar create a potential strategic growth angle (satcom/Project Kuiper), but the idea is capital?intensive and generated mixed market reaction. Globalstar acquisition speculation
• Negative Sentiment: Lawsuits over AI training data: YouTubers sued Amazon alleging it scraped videos to train generative AI tools — potential legal, IP and reputational risk if cases gain traction. YouTubers sue Amazon
• Negative Sentiment: Operational risk in the Middle East: recent drone strikes damaged AWS infrastructure in Bahrain and the UAE; AWS says teams are working to restore services, but the events highlight geopolitical and reliability risks for cloud operations. AWS Middle East disruptions
• Negative Sentiment: Customer/PR friction: Amazon will end storefront support for pre?2013 Kindles (no new book purchases/downloads), prompting consumer backlash; separately, reports of brands pulling items over Amazon pricing tactics could pressure retail assortment and relationships. Kindle end-of-support

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. J. Derek Lewis & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,469,000. Purpose Unlimited Inc. purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth approximately $103,016,000. Cornerstone Planning LLC purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,871,000. AMG Asset Management Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth approximately $947,000. Finally, Forty three Eighteen Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth approximately $419,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Amazon.com Trading Up 3.5%

The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $212.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $224.00. The firm has a market cap of $2.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.86, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.38.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.97 by ($0.02). Amazon.com had a return on equity of 21.87% and a net margin of 10.83%.The business had revenue of $213.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.86 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

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.