Amazon.com's (AMZN) "Buy" Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Key Points

• Needham reiterated its “Buy” rating on Amazon and set a $300 price target, implying approximately 27.4% upside. The broader analyst consensus is “Moderate Buy,” with an average target of $316.29.
• Amazon reported a strong quarter, earning $5.75 per share versus the $1.82 consensus and generating $200.61 billion in revenue, up 19.6% year over year.
• Shares traded up 3.9%, while institutional investors owned 72.2% of the stock; insiders sold $36.4 million worth of shares over the past 90 days.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $300.00 price target on the e-commerce giant's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 27.39% from the stock's current price.

AMZN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. China Renaissance boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. TD Securities raised shares of Amazon.com to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Fifty-seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $316.29.

Amazon.com Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $235.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company's 50-day moving average price is $245.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $235.97. The company has a market cap of $2.53 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.46. Amazon.com has a fifty-two week low of $196.00 and a fifty-two week high of $278.56.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $3.93. The company had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. Amazon.com's revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 7.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $239,770.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 484,527 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $116,175,038.79. This represents a 0.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total value of $5,268,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,205,766 shares of the company's stock, valued at $581,042,879.72. This trade represents a 0.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 135,719 shares of company stock valued at $36,438,002 in the last ninety days. 8.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,036,091 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $885,478,000 after buying an additional 397,007 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 25,045 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $5,495,000 after acquiring an additional 986 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake in Amazon.com by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 2,016,869 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $442,481,000 after acquiring an additional 54,987 shares in the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its stake in Amazon.com by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 28,975 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $6,357,000 after acquiring an additional 1,518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,153,000. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amazon.com News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Record quarter and major earnings beat: Amazon reported revenue of $200.6 billion, up approximately 20% year over year, while adjusted earnings per share reached $5.75 versus the $1.82 consensus estimate. Operating income rose 43% to $27.5 billion. Amazon.com Announces Second Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: AWS growth validates AI investments: AWS revenue jumped 37% to $42.2 billion, its fastest growth in more than four years and ahead of expectations. New cloud arrangements with Meta and OpenAI, along with strong enterprise AI demand, reinforced the view that Amazon is beginning to monetize its heavy infrastructure spending. Amazon jumps as AWS growth soothes fears over rising AI spending
• Positive Sentiment: Advertising and retail also contributed: Advertising revenue climbed 26% to nearly $20 billion, while North American sales increased 16%, suggesting that Amazon’s profit growth is not dependent solely on AWS. Amazon Thrives On Big Q2 For AI, Advertising Revenue Climbs
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised targets: Baird lifted its target to $310, JPMorgan to $365, and Bank of America to $320, citing accelerating AWS growth, AI momentum, and potential margin expansion. Citi maintained its Buy rating and $325 target. J.P. Morgan Amazon price target
• Neutral Sentiment: Zoox reached a regulatory milestone: Amazon’s autonomous-vehicle unit received approval to begin limited paid robotaxi rides, providing a potential long-term growth option but little immediate earnings impact. Amazon's Zoox wins first US approval for paid robotaxis
• Negative Sentiment: Capital spending remains the key risk: Amazon’s approximately $220 billion 2026 spending plan and reported AI-related cost overruns could pressure free cash flow. Third-quarter revenue guidance of $197 billion to $202 billion also came in below the $204.6 billion analyst consensus, tempering the otherwise bullish outlook.

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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