BMO Capital Markets Issues Positive Forecast for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock Price

Key Points

• BMO Capital Markets has raised its price target for Amazon.com from $270 to $280, suggesting a potential upside of 30.36% from the previous close.
• Amazon.com reported $1.68 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding estimates of $1.31, alongside a revenue of $167.70 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 13.3%.
• Insider trading activity includes Jeffrey P. Bezos selling over 4 million shares, valued at approximately $960 million, indicating a slight decrease in his ownership stake.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its price target boosted by equities research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "outperform" rating on the e-commerce giant's stock. BMO Capital Markets' price target suggests a potential upside of 30.36% from the company's previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $271.00 price objective (up from $249.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Monday. HSBC boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $256.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane raised Amazon.com from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $254.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Amazon.com from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $260.85.

Amazon.com Price Performance

AMZN stock traded down $19.32 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $214.79. 90,125,362 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 44,590,910. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.33. Amazon.com has a 52 week low of $151.61 and a 52 week high of $242.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $217.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $209.23.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.37. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 24.14% and a net margin of 10.14%. The firm had revenue of $167.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.26 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Amazon.com will post 6.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 4,273,237 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.81, for a total value of $960,666,409.97. Following the transaction, the insider owned 897,722,088 shares in the company, valued at approximately $201,816,902,603.28. The trade was a 0.47% 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. Insiders sold a total of 25,099,537 shares of company stock valued at $5,674,394,548 in the last quarter. 9.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Carderock Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company's stock.

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.

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