Employees Provident Fund Board Takes Position in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Employees Provident Fund Board opened a large new position in Amazon, buying 1.8 million shares worth about $415.5 million. The stake now represents roughly 3.1% of its portfolio and is its 7th-largest holding.
• Amazon has drawn continued interest from institutional investors, with hedge funds and other institutions owning 72.2% of the stock. At the same time, insiders have been selling shares, including CEO Andy Jassy and SVP David Zapolsky.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on AMZN, with 57 Buy ratings versus 3 Holds and a consensus price target of $312.78. Amazon also beat earnings expectations last quarter, reporting $2.78 EPS on revenue of $181.52 billion.

Employees Provident Fund Board purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,800,000 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock, valued at approximately $415,476,000. Amazon.com accounts for approximately 3.1% of Employees Provident Fund Board's portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Strategic Advisory Partners LLC bought a new position in Amazon.com in the 4th quarter valued at $396,000. S Harris Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth $1,776,000. EJMK Ventures LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth $3,039,000. Targeted Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth about $548,000. Finally, WMS Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the 4th quarter worth about $3,317,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,352 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,175,766 shares in the company, valued at approximately $598,335,650. The trade was a 1.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.53, for a total value of $2,489,273.10. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,060,750.70. The trade was a 18.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 sold 195,774 shares of company stock valued at $51,614,434 over the last three months. Insiders own 8.90% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AMZN shares. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $283.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. TD Securities upgraded shares of Amazon.com to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Pivotal Research reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $312.78.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of AMZN stock opened at $244.39 on Monday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $256.51 and its 200 day moving average is $234.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.23, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $196.00 and a 12 month high of $278.56. 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 (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.63 by $1.15. Amazon.com had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The business had revenue of $181.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.59 EPS. Amazon.com's revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

More Amazon.com News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are increasingly bullish on Amazon’s AI and cloud positioning, with multiple firms reiterating Buy ratings and highlighting AWS as a long-term growth driver. Brian Pitz Reiterates Amazon as Top Pick, Maintains Buy Rating and $355 Price Target on Strengthening AI and Cloud Positioning
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly exploring sales of its Trainium AI chips to external data center customers, which could open a new revenue stream and deepen its challenge to Nvidia. Amazon exploring selling its custom AI chips to data center customers
• Positive Sentiment: Prime Day is approaching, and Bank of America expects the event to drive strong sales while boosting adoption of Amazon’s AI shopping tools, including Alexa for Shopping. Bank of America Lays Out Expectations Ahead of Amazon Stock’s Prime Day
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon is investing more than €10 billion to expand its European fulfillment network, signaling continued support for e-commerce capacity and logistics efficiency. Amazon Commits €10 Billion for European fulfillment network
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is facing EU scrutiny over whether AWS should be classified as a “gatekeeper” under the Digital Markets Act, which could increase regulatory oversight for the cloud unit. Microsoft and Amazon Face EU Digital Markets Act Scrutiny Over Cloud Dominance
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon MGM Studios dropped the nearly finished OpenAI film “Artificial” after the companies’ broader partnership shift, a move with limited direct financial impact but notable signaling value. Luca Guadagnino’s Sam Altman, OpenAI Film ‘Artificial’ Dropped by Amazon MGM Studios
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon is also dealing with employee and public scrutiny over AI data center expansion and labor practices, which could add regulatory and reputational pressure. Amazon investigating engineers who criticized AI data center expansion

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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