Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Up 1.6% – Here’s Why

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock price shot up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $210.36 and last traded at $208.56. 40,740,884 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 25% from the average session volume of 54,399,594 shares. The stock had previously closed at $205.27.

Amazon.com News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Large AI/cloud investment tangible — Amazon announced a $12 billion Louisiana data‑center buildout that it will fund and that targets AI/cloud demand, reinforcing AWS growth and capacity plans. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and ratings support — firms and commentators continue to point to accelerating AWS revenue and solid fundamentals (and Moody’s recently affirmed Amazon’s rating with a stable outlook), which underpins the bullish recovery case. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Big capex headline remains the main story — management’s disclosure of roughly $200 billion in AI‑related capital spending is viewed as strategic for leadership but leaves timing and near‑term returns uncertain, driving volatility. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader tech/market pressure is a headwind — market commentary notes the Magnificent Seven are breaking technical levels and macro/financial‑sector caution is increasing, amplifying stock swings for even high‑quality names like AMZN. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: State antitrust action in California — prosecutors asked a judge to enjoin alleged tactics that pressured merchants to avoid cheaper prices elsewhere, raising potential fines, remedies, and reputational risk. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Europe privacy enforcement — Italy’s data‑protection authority banned an Amazon unit from processing personal data of ~1,800 logistics workers, signaling regulatory friction in EU operations. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMZN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, February 6th. Arete Research upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $283.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One 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. According to MarketBeat, Amazon.com currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.29.

Amazon.com Stock Up 1.6%

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $227.87 and a 200-day moving average of $228.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market cap of $2.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.37.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 4,784 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.37, for a total value of $949,002.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 512,109 shares in the company, valued at $101,587,062.33. The trade was a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,284 shares of company stock worth $1,740,052. 10.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $186,420,422,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447,045 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings 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 worth $89,708,913,000 after purchasing an additional 6,971,680 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 worth $51,753,622,000 after buying an additional 2,479,324 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at $32,868,735,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 97,379,134 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $18,527,354,000 after buying an additional 302,858 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Amazon.com

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.