Ritholtz Wealth Management Raises Stock Holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its Amazon stake 2.8% in Q4 to 250,366 shares worth $57.79 million, making AMZN 1.1% of its portfolio and its 18th largest holding.
• AWS momentum is driving bullish sentiment — a multibillion‑dollar Meta deal to deploy Graviton5 cores and an expanded Anthropic $5B partnership have prompted analyst upgrades and higher price targets.
• Insider sales (CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,000 shares for ~$7.9M and insiders sold ~124,186 shares worth ~$27.8M in the last 90 days) plus upcoming Q1 results (Apr 29) and California AG pricing allegations create potential short‑term volatility and regulatory risk.

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 250,366 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after buying an additional 6,824 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com accounts for 1.1% of Ritholtz Wealth Management's investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in Amazon.com were worth $57,789,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 113.2% during the third quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 113 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the third quarter valued at $27,000. Bridge Generations Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 2,330.0% in the third quarter. Bridge Generations Wealth Management LLC now owns 243 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Cooksen Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 23.5% in the second quarter. Cooksen Wealth LLC now owns 247 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 62.3% during the third quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 250 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: Major customer win for AWS custom chips — Meta signed a multiyear deal to deploy "tens of millions" of AWS Graviton5 cores for agentic AI workloads, a multibillion‑dollar contract that directly boosts AWS chip revenue and validates Amazon’s custom silicon strategy. Meta strikes deal with Amazon's cloud unit
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts lifting targets and reaffirming buys — Multiple firms have raised price targets and reiterated buy/overweight ratings, signaling stronger sell‑side conviction ahead of earnings and supporting the rally. Top Analysts Raise Amazon Stock (AMZN) Price Targets
• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Anthropic partnership locks long‑term AWS demand — Coverage highlights a bigger Anthropic commitment (and recent $5B deal), which implies sustained, high‑margin cloud revenue but also sizable compute and capex commitments from Amazon. Amazon and Anthropic $5 Billion Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon‑backed X‑Energy IPO rally highlights ecosystem wins — The strong debut of X‑Energy (an Amazon‑backed SMR startup) underscores investor appetite for companies tied to AI power/data‑center infrastructure and reflects Amazon’s strategic ecosystem bets. X‑Energy Nasdaq Debut
• Neutral Sentiment: Upcoming Q1 earnings (Apr 29) are a short‑term volatility trigger — Consensus expects follow‑through on AWS strength, so results and margin/capex commentary will drive next moves. Earnings Preview: Expected Move
• Neutral Sentiment: Operational changes and selective layoffs/role renames (e.g., "builder" titles) could modestly affect culture and execution but are not immediate share‑price drivers. Amazon replaces job titles
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by CEO — Recent disclosure shows CEO stock sales (~$7.9M), which can create short‑term investor concern over insider timing even if routine. CEO Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/regulatory risk — California AG alleges Amazon pressured vendors on pricing in unsealed filings, a potential multi‑jurisdictional legal overhang that could create headline risk and fines. California price‑fixing allegations

Insider Activity

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $7,905,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,207,118 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $562,815,090. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,695 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.90, for a total value of $554,900.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 119,780 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $24,662,702. The trade was a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 124,186 shares of company stock valued at $27,826,739 in the last 90 days. 8.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

AMZN opened at $263.99 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $218.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $226.29. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1-year low of $178.85 and a 1-year high of $264.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.38.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.02 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 21.87% and a net margin of 10.83%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.86 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $260.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on Amazon.com from $255.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Barclays restated a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Maxim Group lifted their price target on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $289.21.

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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