Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Sells $982,985.16 in Stock

Key Points

• Amazon CEO Douglas Herrington sold 3,741 shares for approximately $983,000 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, reducing his holdings by 0.79% to 467,138 shares.
• Amazon shares rose 2.5% to $265.84, while the company reported strong quarterly results: $5.75 earnings per share and $200.61 billion in revenue, both above analyst expectations.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, with a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $322.56; institutional investors own 72.2% of the stock.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Douglas Herrington sold 3,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.76, for a total transaction of $982,985.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 467,138 shares of the company's stock, valued at $122,745,180.88. This trade represents a 0.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.5%

NASDAQ:AMZN traded up $6.39 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $265.84. 35,587,040 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 49,370,621. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52 week low of $196.00 and a 52 week high of $287.20. The firm's 50 day moving average is $248.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $238.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 17.44% and a return on equity of 18.00%. The company had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 7.5% in the first quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 73,085 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $15,221,000 after purchasing an additional 5,125 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 1.7% during the first quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 303,862 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $63,285,000 after acquiring an additional 5,104 shares in the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management grew 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 acquiring an additional 4,854 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 21.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,653,228 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $5,690,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,275,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 39,264 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $9,063,000 after purchasing an additional 4,713 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Prime Air expansion: Amazon plans to extend lightweight drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026, up roughly sixfold from its current footprint. Deliveries could arrive in as little as 30 minutes for packages weighing up to five pounds, strengthening Amazon’s competitive position against Walmart, FedEx, Wing and Zipline. Amazon drone delivery expansion article
• Positive Sentiment: AWS reacceleration: Coverage highlighted 37% year-over-year AWS growth, reportedly the segment’s fastest pace in more than four years. Amazon’s AWS AI business has surpassed a $25 billion annual revenue run rate, reinforcing the view that artificial-intelligence demand is translating into substantial cloud revenue. Amazon Stock Rises as AWS Growth Reclaims Attention
• Positive Sentiment: More capacity for AI workloads: Amazon raised its planned investment in northwest Louisiana from $12 billion to approximately $18 billion, including a third data-center campus and related power and water infrastructure. The spending signals confidence in sustained AWS demand and is viewed by bullish investors as a way to secure scarce electricity and computing capacity. Amazon Plugs $18B Into the Southern Power Grid
• Positive Sentiment: Supportive outlook: Analysts’ price targets imply meaningful upside, while positive earnings-estimate revisions and Amazon’s investments in Anthropic and AI-powered Alexa add to the company’s long-term growth narrative.
• Neutral Sentiment: Execution remains important: Drone delivery is still being scaled from pilot programs, and the Louisiana buildout requires significant capital before producing returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Capital-spending and competition risks: Rising AI infrastructure costs could pressure free cash flow, depreciation and returns if demand fails to match the buildout. Analysts also warned that increasing competition in cloud computing may limit AWS margins. Amazon AWS growth and competition article

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMZN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on Amazon.com and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up from $355.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Mizuho set a $330.00 target price on Amazon.com and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $335.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $365.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $322.56.

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.

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