Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Receives Buy Rating from Jefferies Financial Group

Key Points

• Jefferies reaffirmed a Buy rating on Amazon, and the consensus across analysts is a "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of about $289.21 (one Strong Buy, 54 Buy, 4 Hold).
• AWS/AI momentum — including a multiyear Meta deal and an expanded Anthropic partnership — has prompted multiple broker upgrades and is cited as the near‑term catalyst, while AMZN trades near its 52‑week high (~$258.89, market cap ~$2.78T).
• Downside risks include recent insider selling (executives sold millions of dollars of stock and insiders sold ~124,186 shares last quarter) and increased regulatory scrutiny from the California attorney general.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research report issued on Friday,MarketScreener reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on AMZN. Telsey Advisory Group restated an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, February 6th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $296.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Maxim Group boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Argus restated a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Scotiabank restated an "outperform" rating and set a $275.00 target price (down from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $289.21.

Amazon.com Trading Up 1.5%

NASDAQ:AMZN traded up $3.81 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $258.89. The company had a trading volume of 8,460,193 shares, compared to its average volume of 49,123,613. The company has a market capitalization of $2.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $217.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $225.95. Amazon.com has a 52 week low of $178.85 and a 52 week high of $260.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.97 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $213.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.02 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.83% and a return on equity of 21.87%. The business's revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.86 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 7.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 10,649 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.43, for a total value of $2,187,624.07. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares in the company, valued at $8,461,661.70. The trade was a 20.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 17,751 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.22, for a total transaction of $3,642,860.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,405 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,930,094.10. The trade was a 65.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 124,186 shares of company stock worth $27,826,739 over the last quarter. 9.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 113.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 113 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. MilWealth Group LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 79.0% in the 4th quarter. MilWealth Group LLC now owns 179 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership raised its position in Amazon.com by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership now owns 200 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company's stock.

Amazon.com News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta signed a multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement to run agentic AI workloads on AWS Graviton CPUs — "tens of millions of cores" — which materially boosts near‑ and medium‑term demand for AWS infrastructure and Graviton capacity. Meta strikes deal with Amazon's cloud unit to use its CPU chips
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokerages (BMO, Bernstein, UBS, Arete, Sanford C. Bernstein, Oppenheimer, Cantor Fitzgerald) raised AMZN price targets and maintained buy/outperform ratings, citing AWS and AI momentum — a near‑term catalyst for further investor inflows. UBS maintains buy rating / price target update
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s expanded Anthropic partnership and related AI commitments continue to signal large, long‑duration AWS revenue and compute demand (analysts link this to >$100B of potential cloud spend). This reinforces the narrative that AWS is the primary earnings driver. Amazon deepens AI push with expanded Anthropic deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon‑backed X‑Energy’s successful $1.02B IPO is a win for Amazon’s investment portfolio but has limited near‑term revenue impact on AMZN. Amazon-Backed X-Energy Raises $1.02 Billion in IPO
• Neutral Sentiment: Internal moves (AWS exec added to the S‑team, promotions) signal operational focus on cloud scale; positive for execution but not an immediate earnings driver. Amazon names AWS exec to S-team
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Amazon’s CEO sold roughly $7.9M of stock — a modest red flag investors may watch for timing/intent, though not uncommon at this scale. Insider Selling: Amazon CEO Sells Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal risk: California AG alleges Amazon pressured rivals on pricing; new filings amplify scrutiny and potential litigation/regulatory costs. This is a material downside risk if it escalates. California attorney general says Amazon used ‘intimidation’
• Negative Sentiment: Workforce and culture changes (stripping job titles to “builder” roles) have drawn media attention and could affect morale/retention — a softer operational risk to monitor. In two Amazon units, 'builder' replaces traditional job titles

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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