Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. Boosts Holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Peregrine Asset Advisers increased its Amazon stake by 186.2% in the fourth quarter, ending with 30,337 shares valued at about $7.0 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains upbeat: several analysts raised price targets, and Amazon now has 57 Buy ratings versus just three Holds, with an average target of $312.66.
• Amazon reported strong quarterly results, posting $2.78 EPS and $181.5 billion in revenue, both ahead of expectations and up 16.6% year over year.

Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. boosted its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 186.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,337 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after purchasing an additional 19,738 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com comprises 2.0% of Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc.'s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $7,002,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AMZN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,438,011,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 1st quarter valued at $11,674,091,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 22,085.8% during the 2nd 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 buying an additional 12,122,668 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 21.3% during the 1st 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 buying an additional 10,176,835 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 94,284,962 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $20,702,362,000 after buying an additional 9,583,217 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AMZN. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Amazon.com from a "moderate buy" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $280.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Moffett Nathanson raised their price objective 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. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $275.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Amazon.com has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $312.66.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 6,370 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.39, for a total value of $1,671,424.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 486,527 shares of the company's stock, valued at $127,659,819.53. This trade represents a 1.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total transaction of $620,003.94. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,427,876.40. This trade represents a 1.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 195,774 shares of company stock valued at $51,552,494 over the last three months. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Amazon.com stock opened at $265.29 on Wednesday. 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 has a market capitalization of $2.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $231.93. Amazon.com, Inc. has a twelve month low of $196.00 and a twelve month high of $278.56.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $1.15. The business had revenue of $181.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.28 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.59 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Amazon.com News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Investor sentiment remains constructive after multiple articles highlighted Amazon’s strong AI and AWS growth potential, margin expansion case, and bullish analyst views, including recent buy/overweight ratings and price targets well above current levels. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s latest quarterly revenue of $181.5 billion, up 16.6% year over year, reinforces the view that the business is still expanding at a healthy pace. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The stock is also being included in broader market “buy zone” and AI-leader discussions, suggesting traders still see Amazon as a favored large-cap growth name. Article Title

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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