Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Amazon.com Call Options (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 912,665 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 14% compared to the average daily volume of 800,407 call options.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In related news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total value of $620,003.94. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 119,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,427,876.40. This trade represents a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,352 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,175,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $598,335,650. This represents 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. Insiders have sold 135,719 shares of company stock valued at $36,438,002 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,868,735,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its stake in Amazon.com by 27,376.7% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,272,397,000 after buying an additional 98,090,585 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in Amazon.com by 20,598.0% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 87,982,814 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $20,308,193,000 after purchasing an additional 87,557,736 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the first quarter valued at approximately $11,674,091,000. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its stake in Amazon.com by 879.4% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 27,862,400 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $6,431,199,000 after acquiring an additional 25,017,588 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMZN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings raised Amazon.com from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Moffett Nathanson increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $283.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group set a $318.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on Amazon.com from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Fifty-seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.40.

Amazon.com Stock Up 15.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN traded up $35.22 during trading on Friday, hitting $270.72. The stock had a trading volume of 60,712,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 49,572,262. The company has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.38, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.46. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $245.59 and its 200 day moving average is $235.97. Amazon.com has a 12 month low of $196.00 and a 12 month high of $278.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 7.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q2 results: Amazon reported $200.6 billion in revenue, up 20% year over year, while adjusted earnings per share of $5.75 substantially exceeded the $1.82 consensus estimate. Operating income increased 43% to $27.5 billion. Amazon.com Announces Second Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: AWS growth eased AI-spending concerns: AWS revenue surged 37% to $42.2 billion, its fastest growth in more than four years, as enterprise AI demand and new arrangements with Meta and OpenAI drove cloud consumption. AWS operating profit reached $16.6 billion, supporting the view that Amazon is beginning to monetize its substantial AI investments. Amazon jumps as AWS growth soothes fears over rising AI spending
• Positive Sentiment: Broad business momentum: North America sales rose 16%, advertising revenue climbed 26% to nearly $20 billion, and Prime Day activity helped support the retail business. Amazon also said AI demand remains strong, with CEO Andy Jassy describing future AWS capacity needs as “striking.” Amazon Thrives On Big Q2 For AI, Advertising Revenue Climbs
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst optimism intensified: JPMorgan raised its price target to $365 from $330 and maintained an Overweight rating. Truist lifted its target to $350 from $320, while Monness Crespi, Rosenblatt, KeyCorp, Baird, Bank of America and other firms also raised or reaffirmed bullish targets. J.P. Morgan raises Amazon price target
• Positive Sentiment: Zoox reached a commercial milestone: Amazon’s autonomous-vehicle unit received approval to begin charging for rides in its purpose-built, steering-wheel-free robotaxis, allowing limited deployment in Las Vegas. The move could create a long-term growth option, although safety advocates questioned the supporting data. Amazon’s Zoox to begin charging for rides in Las Vegas
• Neutral Sentiment: Investment returns remain under scrutiny: Amazon plans approximately $220 billion of 2026 capital spending, largely for AI infrastructure. Management sees demand exceeding available capacity, but the spending weighs on free cash flow and has raised questions about financing and future margins. Amazon will spend $220 billion this year
• Negative Sentiment: Near-term guidance was softer than expected: Amazon forecast third-quarter revenue of $197 billion to $202 billion, below the roughly $204.6 billion analyst consensus, creating a potential offset to the otherwise strong results.

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.