Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Scotiabank Analyst Says

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its price target increased by equities research analysts at Scotiabank from $250.00 to $275.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a "sector outperform" rating on the e-commerce giant's stock. Scotiabank's target price indicates a potential upside of 20.46% from the stock's current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Mizuho decreased their target price on Amazon.com from $285.00 to $255.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Amazon.com from $255.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $280.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Amazon.com from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $254.33.

Amazon.com Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN traded up $0.82 on Tuesday, hitting $228.29. The company's stock had a trading volume of 28,124,253 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,895,319. Amazon.com has a 12 month low of $151.61 and a 12 month high of $242.52. The company has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33. The stock's 50-day moving average is $214.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $208.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.21. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 24.14% and a net margin of 10.14%. The company had revenue of $155.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $154.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Amazon.com will post 6.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.06, for a total transaction of $550,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 514,550 shares in the company, valued at $113,231,873. The trade was a 0.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,339,470 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.39, for a total value of $536,651,023.30. Following the sale, the insider owned 887,933,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $203,683,180,030.61. The trade was a 0.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,947,939 shares of company stock valued at $4,720,588,785 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AMZN. Tallon Kerry Patrick bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth about $800,000. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 49,407 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $10,839,000 after acquiring an additional 860 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,036,091 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $885,478,000 after acquiring an additional 397,007 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth about $301,650,000. Finally, Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 25,045 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $5,495,000 after acquiring an additional 986 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company's stock.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content.