Jefferies Financial Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Stock

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its price target boosted by Jefferies Financial Group from $235.00 to $275.00 in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the e-commerce giant’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AMZN. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $236.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Amazon.com from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $197.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Amazon.com from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.00.

Amazon.com Price Performance

AMZN opened at $220.52 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $204.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $190.75. Amazon.com has a fifty-two week low of $144.05 and a fifty-two week high of $233.00. The firm has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.16.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.29. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. The company had revenue of $158.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amazon.com will post 5.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 2,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.00, for a total transaction of $427,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 62,420 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,171,900. The trade was a 3.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Daniel P. Huttenlocher sold 1,237 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.06, for a total value of $246,237.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,912 shares in the company, valued at $4,958,982.72. The trade was a 4.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,034,534 shares of company stock valued at $1,253,883,872 in the last 90 days. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. City State Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. City State Bank now owns 15,770 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $3,048,000 after buying an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 6.5% in the second quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. now owns 12,288 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,375,000 after acquiring an additional 755 shares during the period. Lynx Investment Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the second quarter valued at about $2,609,000. New England Research & Management Inc. increased its position in Amazon.com by 7.4% during the second quarter. New England Research & Management Inc. now owns 10,109 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,954,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the period. Finally, Marion Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. Marion Wealth Management now owns 4,911 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.