Kanawha Capital Management LLC Acquires 4,299 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Key Points

• Kanawha Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Amazon by 6.6%, acquiring an additional 4,299 shares, bringing its total to 69,553 shares valued at approximately $13.23 million.
• Institutional investors currently own 72.20% of Amazon's stock, with significant recent investments including a new position worth $27.27 billion by Norges Bank.
• Amazon's stock saw a 0.6% increase in price, now trading at $232.79, while the company reported an earnings per share of $1.59 for the last quarter, surpassing estimates.

Kanawha Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 6.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 69,553 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after buying an additional 4,299 shares during the quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC's holdings in Amazon.com were worth $13,233,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new position in Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth approximately $800,000. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 49,407 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $10,839,000 after purchasing an additional 860 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $885,478,000 after acquiring an additional 397,007 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings 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. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its position in shares of 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 worth $442,481,000 after acquiring an additional 54,987 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Amazon.com

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 4,273,237 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were 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 directly owned 897,722,088 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 25,099,537 shares of company stock valued at $5,674,394,548 in the last ninety days. 9.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMZN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Amazon.com from $245.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Amazon.com from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $265.00 to $240.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $255.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $255.52.

Amazon.com Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of AMZN traded up $2.29 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $232.48. The company had a trading volume of 24,411,312 shares, compared to its average volume of 43,728,707. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $217.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $209.12. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $151.61 and a 52-week high of $242.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.33.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.21. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 24.14%. The business had revenue of $155.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

Amazon.com Company 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.