New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Cuts Stock Position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Key Points

• New Mexico Educational Retirement Board has reduced its stake in Amazon.com by 1.6%, now holding 440,700 shares, which represents approximately 3.0% of its investment portfolio with a value of about $83.8 million.
• Analysts have increased their price targets for Amazon.com stock, with Cantor Fitzgerald raising its target from $260 to $280, while the stock currently has an average price target of $262.45.
• Insider trades revealed that Jeffrey P. Bezos sold over 2.6 million shares at an average price of $230.43, reducing his ownership by 0.30%.

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board cut its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 440,700 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 7,100 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com accounts for 3.0% of New Mexico Educational Retirement Board's portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board's holdings in Amazon.com were worth $83,848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,266,582,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 21,420.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30,245,061 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $5,754,425,000 after purchasing an additional 30,104,520 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 36.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 65,709,496 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $14,416,078,000 after purchasing an additional 17,681,004 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 823,360,597 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $180,637,081,000 after purchasing an additional 17,635,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 26.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 57,268,523 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $12,564,961,000 after purchasing an additional 12,000,745 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMZN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $265.00 to $272.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $288.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $255.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Citizens Jmp initiated coverage on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "strong-buy" rating for the company. Finally, Roth Capital set a $250.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $262.45.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.00, for a total transaction of $542,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 512,050 shares in the company, valued at approximately $111,114,850. The trade was a 0.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,643,142 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.43, for a total value of $609,059,211.06. Following the transaction, the insider owned 883,779,901 shares of the company's stock, valued at $203,649,402,587.43. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 25,102,037 shares of company stock valued at $5,674,937,048. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company's stock.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMZN traded up $8.44 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $222.19. 54,656,017 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 45,179,059. The firm has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.87, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.31. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $218.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $208.96. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $161.38 and a 12 month high of $242.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.37. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 23.84% and a net margin of 10.54%. The company had revenue of $167.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.80 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.