Essex Financial Services Inc. Grows Stake in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 112,006 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,526 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com accounts for 1.3% of Essex Financial Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $23,328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth $32,868,735,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its stake in Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during 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 during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased 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 worth $20,308,193,000 after buying an additional 87,557,736 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Amazon.com in the 1st quarter worth $11,674,091,000. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 879.4% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 27,862,400 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,431,199,000 after buying an additional 25,017,588 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.53, for a total transaction of $2,489,273.10. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,060,750.70. This trade represents a 18.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,352 shares of the company’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 value of $8,621,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,175,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $598,335,650. This trade represents a 1.42% 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 195,774 shares of company stock valued at $51,643,704. 8.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AMZN. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. HSBC raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their target price on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Fifty-seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.79.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Amazon.com

Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com

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Amazon.com Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMZN traded down $1.70 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $245.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 31,617,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 58,414,680. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52 week low of $196.00 and a 52 week high of $278.56. The stock has a market cap of $2.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.35, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $253.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $235.31.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZNGet Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by $1.15. The firm had revenue of $181.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.28 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 19.92% and a net margin of 12.22%.The firm’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.59 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amazon.com Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

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