Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Raises Position in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its Amazon stake by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, buying 17,188 additional shares and bringing its total holdings to 151,881 shares valued at about $35.1 million.
• Amazon continues to draw strong support from institutional investors and analysts, with 57 Buy ratings versus just three Holds and an average price target of $312.52. Several firms recently raised their targets to as high as $315-$320.
• The company’s latest quarter showed solid fundamentals, as Amazon reported $2.78 EPS on $181.52 billion in revenue, both above expectations. Revenue rose 16.6% year over year, even as the stock traded down roughly 3.5% in recent trading.

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 12.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 151,881 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after buying an additional 17,188 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up approximately 1.0% of Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.'s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $35,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Amazon.com by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,036,091 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $885,478,000 after acquiring an additional 397,007 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Amazon.com by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 25,045 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $5,495,000 after acquiring an additional 986 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in Amazon.com by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 2,016,869 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $442,481,000 after acquiring an additional 54,987 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE lifted its position in Amazon.com by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 28,975 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $6,357,000 after acquiring an additional 1,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at $2,153,000. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Amazon.com

In other news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 41,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,060,750.70. This trade represents a 18.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 471,361 shares in the company, valued at approximately $129,624,275. This represents a 5.51% 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 194,774 shares of company stock worth $51,348,244. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $175.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Guggenheim restated 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $312.52.

More Amazon.com News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains constructive on Amazon, with multiple bullish notes reiterating Buy ratings and higher price targets, citing improving cloud momentum and the potential for newer businesses like supply chain services and satellite internet to become meaningful revenue drivers.
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s AI story is getting stronger: reports highlighted that its $8 billion Anthropic stake has ballooned in value and that AWS continues to benefit from partnership demand, reinforcing the company’s optionality in artificial intelligence.
• Positive Sentiment: The company also received supportive coverage as a leading long-term AI/data center play, with investors seeing Amazon’s scale in cloud, logistics, and infrastructure as a durable competitive advantage.
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon said it has already invested £15 billion in the U.K. toward a planned multiyear commitment, underscoring continued capital deployment into growth and infrastructure.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles framed Amazon as a high-quality stock after a strong multi-year run, but also noted that the shares are no longer cheap, which may be encouraging investors to take profits or wait for a better entry point.
• Neutral Sentiment: Some headlines about Jeff Bezos-related stock portfolios and Amazon being a top data-center or retail-media name are supportive in tone, but they are mostly commentary rather than new fundamental news.
• Negative Sentiment: A Reuters report said the EU may tighten cloud procurement rules in a way that could restrict Amazon Web Services’ access to certain strategic government tenders in Europe, creating a potential regulatory headwind.
• Negative Sentiment: Blue Origin’s recent rocket explosion raised concerns that Amazon’s satellite internet ambitions could face delays, even though management is trying to stay focused on the broader project.
• Negative Sentiment: Greg Abel’s decision to dump Amazon shares in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio is a modest sentiment negative, though it reflects portfolio allocation choices rather than a new problem with Amazon’s business.

Amazon.com Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $261.26 on Tuesday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.00 and a 52-week high of $278.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $246.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $232.58. The firm has a market cap of $2.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.45.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The business had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.59 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

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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