Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group reduced its Amazon stake by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 1,152,167 shares. It still owned 19.6 million shares worth about $4.53 billion, making Amazon its fourth-largest holding.
• Amazon continues to attract strong Wall Street support, with 57 analysts rating the stock a Buy and a consensus “Moderate Buy” target price of $312.66. Recent firms including JPMorgan, TD Cowen, and Deutsche Bank also raised or reaffirmed bullish price targets.
• Despite some insider selling, Amazon posted strong quarterly results, including earnings of $2.78 per share on $181.52 billion in revenue, both above estimates. The stock was trading near its 52-week high, supported by optimism around AWS, AI growth, and margin strength.

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,608,246 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 1,152,167 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts for about 2.3% of Principal Financial Group Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.18% of Amazon.com worth $4,525,979,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Capital Advisory LLC increased its stake in Amazon.com by 63.9% during the 3rd quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC now owns 8,081 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $1,774,000 after acquiring an additional 3,152 shares during the period. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in Amazon.com during the 3rd quarter worth $451,642,000. Narwhal Capital Management increased its stake in Amazon.com by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 216,606 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $49,997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,854 shares during the period. Weaver Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Amazon.com by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 39,264 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $9,063,000 after acquiring an additional 4,713 shares during the period. Finally, Ethos Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Amazon.com by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 36,485 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $8,421,000 after acquiring an additional 3,196 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Arete Research raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $301.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Amazon.com from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group decreased their price target on Amazon.com from $300.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Fifty-seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $312.66.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 6,370 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.39, for a total transaction of $1,671,424.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 486,527 shares in the company, valued at $127,659,819.53. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total value of $620,003.94. Following the sale, the vice president owned 119,780 shares in the company, valued at $31,427,876.40. This represents a 1.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 195,774 shares of company stock worth $51,552,494 over the last three months. 8.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of AMZN opened at $271.85 on Thursday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.00 and a 52-week high of $278.56. The business's fifty day moving average is $242.99 and its 200-day moving average is $232.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.63 by $1.15. The business had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 19.92% and a net margin of 12.22%.Amazon.com's quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.59 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon Web Services is deepening its AI growth story by selling AI shopping tools to retailers and expanding its broader “agentic commerce” strategy, reinforcing AWS as a potential new growth engine. Amazon starts selling its AI shopping technology to other retailers
• Positive Sentiment: Snowflake’s $6 billion AWS commitment highlights continued demand for Amazon’s cloud infrastructure and AI chips, which investors may view as validation of AWS’s competitive position and revenue pipeline. Snowflake signs $6 billion deal with AWS tied to AI infrastructure
• Positive Sentiment: UBS and other analysts remain bullish, arguing Amazon’s AWS AI backlog and margin expansion could be more powerful than Wall Street currently expects, with price targets well above recent trading levels. Amazon Stock (AMZN): This Top Analyst Says AWS AI Growth Is Stronger Than Investors Realize
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary says AWS margins are holding up better than rivals, helping support the case that Amazon can monetize AI spending without sacrificing profitability. AWS Margins Are Leaving Cloud Rivals Behind as Anthropic Demand Surges
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon’s healthcare leadership change appears operational rather than strategic: longtime health executive Neil Lindsay is stepping down and Dr. Roy Schoenberg will take over, so the market may view it as a business continuity move. Amazon puts Amwell co-founder in charge of healthcare unit; longtime executive to depart
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple executive stock sales, including by CEO Andy Jassy and other leaders, may create modest short-term pressure or raise questions about insider sentiment, even though the trades were reported as pre-planned. Amazon.com NASDAQ: AMZN CEO Matthew Garman Sells 15,467 Shares of Stock

Amazon.com Company Profile

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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