Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Makes New Investment in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,952,074 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock, valued at approximately $649,582,000. Amazon.com comprises about 3.8% of Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Amazon.com by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 823,360,597 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $180,637,081,000 after acquiring an additional 17,635,391 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 3.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 359,179,990 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $66,926,008,000 after purchasing an additional 11,370,309 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Amazon.com by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 204,930,426 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $44,837,256,000 after purchasing an additional 5,015,380 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth $27,266,582,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 67,092,427 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $14,719,407,000 after acquiring an additional 545,292 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AMZN. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $265.00 to $240.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Amazon.com from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Amazon.com from $235.00 to $230.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and forty-four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $244.09.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of Amazon.com stock traded up $3.48 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $188.49. 27,768,269 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 41,598,737. Amazon.com, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $151.61 and a fifty-two week high of $242.52. The company has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $189.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.21. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 24.25% and a net margin of 9.29%. The firm had revenue of $155.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.67, for a total value of $476,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 506,974 shares in the company, valued at approximately $96,664,732.58. This trade represents a 0.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,784 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.65, for a total transaction of $4,585,989.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,118,886 shares of the company's stock, valued at $467,532,195.90. This trade represents a 0.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 107,298 shares of company stock valued at $23,818,478 in the last 90 days. 9.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content.