Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. Buys 2,571 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. increased its Amazon stake by 6.5% in Q4, buying 2,571 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 41,917 shares valued at about $9.68 million.
• Amazon’s latest quarter beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, with EPS of $2.78 versus $1.63 expected and revenue of $181.52 billion, up 16.6% year over year.
• Wall Street remains optimistic, with multiple firms raising price targets and the stock holding a Moderate Buy consensus rating with an average target price of $313.09.

Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. grew its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 41,917 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after purchasing an additional 2,571 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up approximately 3.7% of Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.'s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $9,675,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 2,627 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $606,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Darrow Company Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. Darrow Company Inc. now owns 2,365 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Summit Financial Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Summit Financial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,169 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $2,578,000 after purchasing an additional 597 shares in the last quarter. Portus Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Portus Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,746 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $2,019,000 after acquiring an additional 555 shares during the period. Finally, Autumn Glory Partners LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC now owns 7,883 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $1,820,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company's stock.

Key Amazon.com News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s latest earnings beat showed stronger-than-expected revenue and profits, while AWS growth and AI-related demand continue to support the long-term growth narrative. Amazon Over Spending on AI?
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon is opening its logistics network to outside customers through Amazon Supply Chain Services, creating a new revenue stream beyond retail and cloud. Amazon Bets Logistics Is the New Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon Pharmacy is expanding access to Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic pill through same-day delivery and kiosks, adding another growth angle in healthcare. Amazon to Carry Ozempic
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts have raised price targets after the Q1 report, reflecting confidence that Amazon can keep compounding growth. Analyst Target Raises
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Andy Jassy sold shares under a pre-arranged trading plan, which is notable but does not necessarily signal a change in fundamentals. Jassy Share Sale
• Neutral Sentiment: Some articles highlighted concerns about Amazon’s heavy AI and data-center spending, but investors appear willing to give the company time to convert that investment into future growth. Cash Burn Concern
• Negative Sentiment: An AWS cooling issue caused a brief outage that disrupted services at other platforms, reminding investors that cloud reliability remains a key risk for Amazon Web Services. AWS Outage

Amazon.com Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $272.62 on Monday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $227.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $228.72. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52 week low of $191.16 and a 52 week high of $278.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.93 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.61, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $1.15. Amazon.com had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 19.92%. The company had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.59 earnings per share. Amazon.com's revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AMZN shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $319.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wolfe Research reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $320.00 price objective (up from $245.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $320.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 price objective (up from $275.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $313.09.

Insider Activity

In other Amazon.com news, Director Jonathan Rubinstein sold 3,706 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.02, for a total value of $1,011,812.12. Following the sale, the director owned 74,948 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,462,302.96. This trade represents a 4.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 27,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 $129,624,275. The trade was a 5.51% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 191,593 shares of company stock worth $46,289,241 over the last ninety days. 8.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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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