Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Up 1.5% – Should You Buy?

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares traded up 1.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $255.83 and last traded at $253.79. 35,509,578 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 26% from the average session volume of 48,259,172 shares. The stock had previously closed at $250.02.

Amazon.com News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon unveiled a new AI-powered warehouse robot and a €10 billion expansion of its European fulfillment network, which could improve shipping speed, lower costs, and support margin growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Pinterest signed a $4 billion AWS cloud deal through 2031, highlighting continued demand for Amazon Web Services and reinforcing AWS’s role in enterprise AI infrastructure. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Truist raised its price target on Amazon and reiterated a Buy rating, while other recent commentary pointed to strong AWS growth, rising chip-related revenues, and growing AI optionality. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon overtook Walmart to become the largest U.S. company by revenue, underscoring its scale and the strength of its retail and cloud engines. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple articles framed Amazon as a major beneficiary of the AI buildout, with commentary emphasizing AWS, custom chips, advertising, and subscriptions as high-margin growth drivers. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon launched Prime in South Africa at a low monthly price, a positive international expansion but one that is likely too small to materially move the stock in the short term. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon CEO Douglas Herrington sold 1,000 shares in a pre-planned transaction, adding to short-term caution around insider selling even though the trade was under a Rule 10b5-1 plan. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon faces continued scrutiny over AI/data-center expansion, including pushback from Seattle engineers and local officials, which could create reputational and regulatory overhangs. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on AMZN shares. HSBC raised their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $280.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. President Capital lowered their price target on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $296.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. UBS Group set a $315.00 price objective on Amazon.com in a report on Monday. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $330.00 target price (up from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, April 10th. Fifty-seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.52.

Amazon.com Trading Up 1.5%

The company’s 50-day moving average is $248.25 and its 200-day moving average is $232.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market cap of $2.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.44.

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

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.53, for a total transaction of $2,489,273.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,060,750.70. The trade was a 18.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $266.19, for a total transaction of $266,190.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 485,527 shares in the company, valued at approximately $129,242,432.13. The trade was a 0.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 a total of 195,774 shares of company stock valued at $51,614,434 over the last quarter. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 3rd quarter valued at about $451,642,000. Narwhal Capital Management lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 216,606 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $49,997,000 after buying an additional 4,854 shares during the period. Weaver Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 39,264 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $9,063,000 after buying an additional 4,713 shares in the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 36,485 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $8,421,000 after buying an additional 3,196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 239,862 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $52,667,000 after buying an additional 4,558 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% 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.