Churchill Financial Advisors LLC Takes Position in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Churchill Financial Advisors LLC opened a new position in Amazon during the fourth quarter, buying 7,419 shares valued at about $1.7 million.
• Amazon continues to attract major institutional support, with large holders like Vanguard, State Street, and Geode increasing stakes; overall, about 72.2% of the stock is owned by institutions.
• Wall Street remains upbeat on AMZN, with analysts maintaining a Moderate Buy consensus and a target price of $312.52, while the company also posted strong quarterly results that beat expectations on both earnings and revenue.

Churchill Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,419 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock, valued at approximately $1,712,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $158,348,557,000 after purchasing an additional 8,913,959 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 381,681,441 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $83,805,794,000 after acquiring an additional 7,584,156 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 216,717,657 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $47,332,625,000 after acquiring an additional 3,721,658 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the second quarter valued at about $27,438,011,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 0.3% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 97,379,134 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $18,527,354,000 after acquiring an additional 302,858 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s latest AI and logistics push is a major bullish catalyst: the company unveiled an upgraded warehouse robot and is backing a €10 billion expansion of its European fulfillment network, which should support faster shipping, lower costs, and better operating efficiency. Reuters: Amazon unveils new AI warehouse robot in $12 billion Europe push
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon Web Services continues to win large contracts, including Pinterest’s $4 billion cloud deal through 2031, reinforcing AWS’s role as a key AI infrastructure beneficiary. Reuters: Pinterest signs $4 billion Amazon deal for cloud services
• Positive Sentiment: Several recent market commentary pieces highlighted Amazon’s growing AI, cloud, and advertising opportunities, with analysts continuing to frame AMZN as a long-duration AI winner. MarketBeat: Amazon.com stock and related coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon’s CEO Douglas Herrington sold 1,000 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan. The sale is small, but insider selling can still create some short-term caution. MarketBeat: Amazon.com insider trades
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon is facing fresh scrutiny over its aggressive AI spending, with employees publicly criticizing massive data-center investment while layoffs continue. That keeps cost and labor concerns front and center. CNBC: Amazon engineers in Seattle slam employer for building AI data centers while laying off staffers
• Negative Sentiment: Rising shipping costs tied to Middle East conflict could pressure Amazon’s retail margins ahead of Prime Day, adding another near-term headwind. Yahoo Finance: Iran war raises shipping costs ahead of Amazon Prime Day
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon also faces ongoing regulatory and reputational pressure from data-center pushback and privacy-related concerns around Ring, which may weigh on sentiment even if the long-term business outlook remains strong. Reuters: Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of AMZN stock opened at $246.03 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.43, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $278.56. The company's fifty day moving average price is $249.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $232.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $1.15. The firm had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.28 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The company's revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.59 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on AMZN. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Telsey Advisory Group upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Pivotal Research reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $315.00 price target (up from $260.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $312.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,467 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.40, for a total value of $4,074,007.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,729,480.60. The trade was a 52.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total transaction of $620,003.94. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,427,876.40. This represents a 1.93% 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. Insiders sold a total of 195,774 shares of company stock worth $51,614,434 in the last 90 days. 8.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Amazon.com 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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