Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Cuts Holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Asahi Life Asset Management reduced its Amazon stake by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 2,289 shares and leaving it with 26,087 shares valued at about $6.0 million.
• Amazon reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $2.78 beating estimates by a wide margin and revenue of $181.52 billion topping forecasts, while sales rose 16.6% year over year.
• Despite some insider selling and a slight stock decline, Wall Street remains bullish on AMZN, with 57 analysts rating it a Buy and a consensus target price of $312.52.

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. cut its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,087 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 2,289 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com comprises approximately 3.4% of Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.'s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.'s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $6,021,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. American Capital Advisory LLC boosted its position in Amazon.com by 63.9% during the third quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC now owns 8,081 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $1,774,000 after purchasing an additional 3,152 shares in the last quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in Amazon.com in the third quarter worth about $451,642,000. Narwhal Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 216,606 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $49,997,000 after buying an additional 4,854 shares during the last quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 39,264 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $9,063,000 after buying an additional 4,713 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ethos Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 36,485 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $8,421,000 after buying an additional 3,196 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company's stock.

Amazon.com Trading Down 1.8%

NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $256.52 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.68, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $196.00 and a 12 month high of $278.56. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $246.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $232.58.

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

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In related news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,352 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total value of $8,621,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,175,766 shares in the company, valued at $598,335,650. This represents a 1.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 27,500 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total transaction of $7,562,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 471,361 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $129,624,275. The trade was a 5.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 194,774 shares of company stock valued at $51,348,244. 8.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Amazon.com News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon moved Prime Day to June 23-26 and kept it a four-day event, which could lift near-term e-commerce sales and membership engagement. Reuters Prime Day article
• Positive Sentiment: The event will include new Alexa AI features, reinforcing Amazon’s AI strategy and potentially improving shopping conversion. Forbes article on Alexa AI-powered Prime Day
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary remained constructive, with bullish Wall Street coverage and price-target increases helping support the stock. Zacks analyst article
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon’s cloud and AI businesses continue to draw attention, including reports that AWS is expanding AI-related investment and that its Anthropic stake has become far more valuable. Business Insider article on Anthropic stake
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon faces fresh regulatory and legal pressure, including an EU cloud procurement review that could make it harder for AWS to win certain government contracts. Reuters EU cloud rules article
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s Ring unit was hit with a class-action privacy lawsuit over facial recognition features, adding to ongoing data-privacy scrutiny. Reuters Ring lawsuit article
• Negative Sentiment: Investor sentiment may also be weighed by a report that Stanley Druckenmiller sharply reduced his Amazon position, which can be read as a cautious signal from a high-profile fund manager. Motley Fool Druckenmiller article

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on AMZN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $280.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Moffett Nathanson raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $283.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Monday. Telsey Advisory Group increased their price objective on Amazon.com from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $296.00 to $332.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $312.52.

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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