Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Amazon.com Call Options (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Key Points

• On Friday, stock traders purchased 775,936 call options for Amazon.com, marking a 24% increase from its average volume.
• Wall Street analysts are optimistic about Amazon, with several firms updating their price targets, including JMP Securities at $285.00 and BMO Capital Markets raising theirs to $280.00.
• Amazon's stock has recently decreased by 4.0%, closing at $218.55, and has a market cap of $2.33 trillion.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders acquired 775,936 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 24% compared to the average volume of 627,020 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMZN has been the topic of a number of research reports. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $285.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Amazon.com from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, September 11th. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $280.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $266.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 13,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.76, for a total transaction of $3,022,853.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 44,110 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,825,943.60. The trade was a 23.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 2,500 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.10, for a total transaction of $542,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 515,507 shares of the company's stock, valued at $111,916,569.70. The trade was a 0.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,040,098 shares of company stock valued at $3,204,129,405 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 9.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in Amazon.com by 542,733.6% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 132,641,388 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $29,100,194,000 after purchasing an additional 132,616,953 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the second quarter worth $27,438,011,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the 1st quarter valued at $11,674,091,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Amazon.com by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 849,721,601 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $186,420,422,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447,045 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 22,085.8% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,177,557 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $2,671,634,000 after purchasing an additional 12,122,668 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amazon.com Stock Down 4.0%

AMZN stock traded down $9.19 on Friday, reaching $218.55. 46,733,217 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 44,148,426. Amazon.com has a one year low of $161.38 and a one year high of $242.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $225.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $211.75.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.37. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 23.84% and a net margin of 10.54%.The company had revenue of $167.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Amazon.com has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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