Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Hennion & Walsh Asset Management increased its Amazon stake by 6.0% in Q4 to 94,605 shares (worth ~$21.84M), representing roughly 0.8% of its portfolio and its 14th-largest holding.
• Institutional ownership of Amazon is high (~72.2%), with major purchases by Vanguard, Norges Bank, Nuveen and Goldman Sachs, and analysts hold a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $286.59.
• Insiders sold a total of 72,686 shares (~$14.9M) last quarter, including CEO Douglas Herrington's 1,000-share sale under a 10b5-1 plan, leaving insiders with about 9.7% ownership.

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 94,605 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after buying an additional 5,387 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up approximately 0.8% of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $21,837,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AMZN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,438,011,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the first quarter valued at approximately $11,674,091,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Amazon.com by 2.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 849,721,601 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $186,420,422,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447,045 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 22,085.8% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,177,557 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $2,671,634,000 after purchasing an additional 12,122,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Amazon.com by 21.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 57,908,424 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $11,017,657,000 after purchasing an additional 10,176,835 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on AMZN shares. New Street Research reduced their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $285.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Argus reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $300.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $275.00 price target (down from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-three have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $286.59.

Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reached a deal with the U.S. Postal Service to keep roughly 80% of current USPS deliveries, reducing the risk of large-scale routing disruption and protecting same‑ and next‑day delivery capacity. Exclusive: Amazon says it has reached deal with US Postal Service on package deliveries
• Positive Sentiment: AWS partnership with UnitedHealthcare to bring AI-driven front-end solutions into healthcare highlights AWS revenue diversification and enterprise AI demand. Investors view these enterprise AI deals as durable growth catalysts for AWS. AWS and UnitedHealthcare Take Back-Office to Front-End Approach to Healthcare AI
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment shows pockets of optimism (price-target upgrades published), which supports the rally narrative and investor confidence in longer-term earnings upside. Amazon.com NASDAQ: AMZN Price Target Raised to $305.00
• Positive Sentiment: Alexa+ expands to conversational ordering with Uber Eats and Grubhub — a product/monetization move that can increase user engagement, commerce touchpoints and ad/upsell opportunities in the smart‑home ecosystem. Amazon’s Alexa+ Adds Conversational Uber Eats and Grubhub Ordering
• Neutral Sentiment: Announced a 3.5% fuel surcharge for Fulfillment‑by‑Amazon sellers starting April 17 (estimated ~17¢ per unit). This helps Amazon pass through higher fuel costs but could affect seller economics and pricing. Amazon Imposes 3.5% Fuel Surcharge as Energy Costs Rise
• Neutral Sentiment: Speculation that Amazon may pursue a ~ $9B satellite play (Globalstar chatter) signals strategic ambition for LEO/connectivity (Project Kuiper acceleration), but remains unconfirmed and is speculative for near‑term EPS impact. As Amazon Considers Buying Globalstar, Should You Buy GSAT Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported insider sale by Amazon’s CEO (~$210,500). Size is small relative to company scale and typical insider activity, so market impact is limited. Insider Selling: Amazon.com NASDAQ: AMZN CEO Sells $210,500.00 in Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Shareholder pressure over water and power use at U.S. data centers highlights environmental/community risk that could slow or complicate future AWS builds and add costs or project delays. Investors press Amazon, Microsoft and Google on water, power use in US data centers

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.50, for a total value of $210,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 520,361 shares in the company, valued at $109,535,990.50. The trade was a 0.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 17,751 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.22, for a total transaction of $3,642,860.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,405 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,930,094.10. This trade represents a 65.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 72,686 shares of company stock valued at $14,899,239 over the last quarter. 9.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $212.79 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $213.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $224.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $161.38 and a 12 month high of $258.60.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The e-commerce giant reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.97 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $213.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.02 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.83% and a return on equity of 21.87%. The business's revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.86 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

About Amazon.com

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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