SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Cuts Position in Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• SBI Securities reduced its Amazon position by 3.6% in the second quarter, selling 14,239 shares and retaining 377,671 shares valued at approximately $90 million. Institutional investors collectively own 72.2% of Amazon’s stock.
• Amazon reported strong quarterly results, with revenue of $200.6 billion, up 19.6% year over year, and adjusted earnings of $5.75 per share versus the $1.82 consensus estimate. Analysts remain bullish, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $323.09.
• Key risks include regulatory scrutiny and heavy AI spending. The FTC and 22 states have accused Amazon of overcharging advertisers, while investors continue to assess whether major investments in AI infrastructure will generate sufficient returns.

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. reduced its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 377,671 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 14,239 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up approximately 2.0% of SBI Securities Co. Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. SBI Securities Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $90,014,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AMZN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $158,348,557,000 after acquiring an additional 8,913,959 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 388,653,121 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $89,708,913,000 after acquiring an additional 6,971,680 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 225,120,994 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $51,753,622,000 after acquiring an additional 2,479,324 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth $32,868,735,000. Finally, Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $2,272,397,000 after purchasing an additional 98,090,585 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com

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

• Positive Sentiment: AWS and AI expansion remain key catalysts. Amazon’s planned $5.3 billion investment in a Saudi Arabia cloud region, expanded access to OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic models through AWS GovCloud, and a deeper partnership with Nvidia—including two million additional GPUs—could strengthen AWS’s position in government and enterprise AI. AMZN’s Saudi Arabia investment
• Positive Sentiment: New commerce initiatives could broaden monetization. YouTube’s integration of Amazon products into its Shopping Affiliate Program may increase product discovery and sales, while Alexa’s personalized shopping alerts and Amazon Pharmacy’s Solv integration could improve customer engagement and conversion. YouTube Amazon partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive. Citi reiterated a Buy rating and a $350 price target despite the legal risks, while recent results showed $200.6 billion in revenue and substantially stronger-than-expected earnings, with AWS revenue reportedly growing 36.7% year over year. Analyst reiterates Amazon Buy rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Zoox is expanding its robotaxi efforts. Amazon’s autonomous-vehicle unit plans testing in Houston and San Diego, but the initiative is still early-stage and has limited near-term earnings impact. Zoox and Waymo robotaxi expansion
• Negative Sentiment: The FTC lawsuit is driving the immediate pressure. The FTC and 22 states allege Amazon manipulated advertising auctions and overcharged approximately 1.2 million advertisers by more than $20 billion. Potential penalties, refunds, operational changes, and limits on ad-pricing practices threaten a rapidly growing, high-margin business. Amazon denies the allegations. FTC lawsuit against Amazon
• Negative Sentiment: AI spending and shareholder concerns remain overhangs. Investors are weighing the capital required for Amazon’s AI infrastructure against future returns, while reports of an institutional investor trimming its stake add near-term selling pressure.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMZN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $335.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up from $355.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Amazon.com and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Monday, August 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Amazon.com currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $323.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Brian T. Olsavsky sold 6,172 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.31, for a total transaction of $1,606,633.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,427,674.17. This represents a 5.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,258 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.77, for a total transaction of $2,404,950.66. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 41,190 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,699,926.30. The trade was a 18.35% 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 sold a total of 70,589 shares of company stock worth $18,314,015 over the last 90 days. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Amazon.com Trading Down 1.9%

NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $254.92 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.03. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $287.20. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $252.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $241.40. The stock has a market cap of $2.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.44.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. Amazon.com's revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amazon.com 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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