Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV Purchases 2,469 Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN

Key Points

• Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group increased its Amazon position by 9.1% in the fourth quarter, buying 2,469 shares and bringing its total holdings to 29,691 shares worth about $6.85 million.
• Amazon continues to draw strong institutional interest, with large investors like Vanguard, State Street, and Geode also adding shares; overall, about 72.2% of the stock is owned by institutions.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish after Amazon’s latest earnings beat expectations, and recent commentary highlights AI, AWS growth, and new shopping features as potential long-term catalysts for the stock.

Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV increased its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) by 9.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 29,691 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after purchasing an additional 2,469 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up 1.1% of Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV's holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV's holdings in Amazon.com were worth $6,853,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $158,348,557,000 after purchasing an additional 8,913,959 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 381,681,441 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $83,805,794,000 after purchasing an additional 7,584,156 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 216,717,657 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $47,332,625,000 after purchasing an additional 3,721,658 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,438,011,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 97,379,134 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $18,527,354,000 after purchasing an additional 302,858 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Amazon.com News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple recent articles argue Amazon is one of the best growth stocks to own, highlighting accelerating business momentum, strong sales growth, and the company’s ability to keep compounding over time. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated a Buy rating after Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping debut, suggesting the new AI-powered shopping feature could become a major commerce platform and add meaningful long-term revenue. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Investor commentary is focusing on AI momentum, AWS re-acceleration, and strong ad and subscription growth, with technical traders also noting supportive chart action and call buying near support. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon’s heavy spending on AI infrastructure is being framed as a long-term catalyst, with investors betting the company’s scale in data centers and cloud could strengthen its competitive edge. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 11,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.66, for a total transaction of $3,014,023.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,430 shares in the company, valued at $3,002,203.80. This represents a 50.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 31,352 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total transaction of $8,621,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,175,766 shares in the company, valued at approximately $598,335,650. The trade was a 1.42% 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 136,124 shares of company stock worth $35,801,387. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $296.00 to $332.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. China Renaissance increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Citizens Jmp reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Fifty-seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $312.66.

Amazon.com Price Performance

Amazon.com stock opened at $266.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Amazon.com, Inc. has a twelve month low of $196.00 and a twelve month high of $278.56. The company's 50-day moving average price is $240.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $231.82.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $177.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.59 EPS. The business's revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

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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