Index Fund Advisors Inc. Reduces Position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Key Points

• Index Fund Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Amazon.com by 53.9%, selling 7,985 shares and retaining 6,819 shares worth approximately $1.3 million.
• Insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold over 2.6 million shares of Amazon stock, worth approximately $609 million, while maintaining ownership of nearly 884 million shares.
• Analysts have set a consensus price target of $262.45 for Amazon, with many ratings upgraded to "buy" from various investment firms in recent reports.

Index Fund Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 53.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 6,819 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 7,985 shares during the quarter. Index Fund Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $1,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the first quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the first quarter worth about $40,000. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amazon.com Price Performance

AMZN stock traded down $0.54 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $222.59. 15,730,892 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 44,948,480. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $219.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $209.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.92, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.31. Amazon.com, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $161.38 and a fifty-two week high of $242.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.37. The firm had revenue of $167.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $161.80 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 23.84% and a net margin of 10.54%. Amazon.com's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.26 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMZN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wedbush raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Amazon.com from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Amazon.com from $250.00 to $245.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on Amazon.com from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $262.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 4,273,237 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.81, for a total transaction of $960,666,409.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 897,722,088 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $201,816,902,603.28. This trade represents a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold a total of 25,102,037 shares of company stock worth $5,674,937,048 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 9.70% of the company's stock.

Amazon.com Profile

Amazon.com, Inc engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content.