Manitou Investment Management Ltd. Increases Stake in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Manitou Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 1.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 282,939 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,404 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up approximately 12.5% of Manitou Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Manitou Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $67,436,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $158,348,557,000 after buying an additional 8,913,959 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Amazon.com by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 388,653,121 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $89,708,913,000 after buying an additional 6,971,680 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,479,324 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,868,735,000. Finally, Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its position 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 valued at $2,272,397,000 after acquiring an additional 98,090,585 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bullish AWS outlook: Morgan Stanley reiterated its bullish view and said AWS could eventually become a $1 trillion annual-revenue business if Amazon successfully converts AI capacity into durable cloud demand. The firm maintained a $335 price target. Amazon’s $500 Bull Case Puts AWS Under Massive Pressure
• Positive Sentiment: Expanded data-center investment: Amazon raised its planned Louisiana investment to approximately $18 billion and added a third campus. Securing power, water and transmission capacity could support AWS expansion and AI workloads, although it will increase near-term capital requirements. Amazon Raises Louisiana Investment To $18 Billion, Adds Third Data Center Campus
• Positive Sentiment: AI and retail initiatives: Amazon’s conversational shopping tools and AI-powered advertising are reported to be increasing product discovery, advertiser returns and retail volumes. These efforts could strengthen both e-commerce monetization and AWS demand. Amazon Thinks AI Is About to Change the Way We Shop
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support and logistics expansion: Baupost, Coatue and Appaloosa added to Amazon positions, while Third Point’s 10% reduction appeared to be a modest rebalance rather than a full exit. Amazon also holds warrants representing about 12% of Einride, which is expanding its electric freight network with 500 Tesla Semi trucks. A Star Investor Just Trimmed Amazon
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed hedge-fund signals: Q2 filings showed major investors making sharply different moves, including sizable purchases by Viking and Druckenmiller’s Duquesne alongside reductions by Bridgewater and others. The filings support interest in AMZN but do not establish a uniform institutional view. Amazon Sees Heavy Hedge Fund Activity in Q2
• Negative Sentiment: AI spending and financing concerns: Amazon is part of a broader hyperscaler borrowing surge to fund AI infrastructure, while analysts warn that elevated capital expenditures could depress free cash flow and raise depreciation expenses before returns are proven. Rival CoreWeave also highlights the risk that some high-margin AI workloads may bypass AWS.
• Negative Sentiment: Project and regulatory risks: A proposed $10 billion Houston data-center campus faces scrutiny over secrecy and tightening Texas rules. Separately, concerns about emissions from gas plants supporting AI data centers could increase regulatory and reputational pressure. Amazon’s $10B Houston Data Center Project Hits Snags

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AMZN. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $365.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $320.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.56.

Amazon.com Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of AMZN opened at $259.45 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $248.53 and a 200-day moving average of $238.89. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52 week low of $196.00 and a 52 week high of $287.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.87, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The company had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.39, for a total transaction of $278,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483,527 shares in the company, valued at $134,609,081.53. This represents a 0.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total value of $620,003.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 119,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,427,876.40. This trade represents a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 62,650 shares of company stock worth $16,535,457. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Amazon.com 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.