Pivotal Research Boosts Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Price Target to $285.00

Key Points

• Pivotal Research has raised its price target for Amazon.com from $260.00 to $285.00, reflecting a potential upside of 21.74% based on the stock's previous close.
• The average rating for Amazon.com among analysts is a "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $258.46, indicating strong confidence in the company's stock performance.
• Amazon's recent quarterly earnings surpassed expectations, reporting earnings per share of $1.68 and revenue of $167.70 billion, showing a year-over-year revenue growth of 13.3%.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its target price upped by analysts at Pivotal Research from $260.00 to $285.00 in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the e-commerce giant's stock. Pivotal Research's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 32.71% from the stock's current price.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Monday, July 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $280.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Amazon.com from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $254.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 27th. HSBC raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $256.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and set a $280.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $260.85.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

AMZN stock traded down $19.36 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $214.75. 122,007,379 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 37,811,656. Amazon.com has a twelve month low of $151.61 and a twelve month high of $242.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $218.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $209.11.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.37. The business had revenue of $167.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.80 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.54% and a return on equity of 24.90%. Amazon.com's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.26 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 4,273,237 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.81, for a total value of $960,666,409.97. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 897,722,088 shares in the company, valued at $201,816,902,603.28. This trade represents a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders sold 25,099,537 shares of company stock worth $5,674,394,548. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $158,348,557,000 after buying an additional 8,913,959 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 328,464,225 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $72,061,766,000 after acquiring an additional 1,725,664 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Amazon.com by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 182,813,905 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $40,107,544,000 after purchasing an additional 4,087,933 shares during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 542,733.6% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 132,641,388 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $29,100,194,000 after purchasing an additional 132,616,953 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.