Morgan Stanley Increases Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Price Target to $240.00

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) had its target price hoisted by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $240.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "overweight" rating on the e-commerce giant's stock. Morgan Stanley's target price indicates a potential upside of 28.30% from the company's previous close.

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AMZN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Maxim Group lowered their price objective on Amazon.com from $318.00 to $238.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $219.82.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Amazon.com

Amazon.com Trading Up 2.5 %

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AMZN traded up $4.51 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $187.06. 27,921,889 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 42,446,828. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $187.51 and a 200 day moving average of $178.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 52.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.15. Amazon.com has a 12-month low of $118.35 and a 12-month high of $201.20.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.15. Amazon.com had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 19.86%. The company had revenue of $143.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. Amazon.com's revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 4.72 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

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In other Amazon.com news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 266,396 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.01, for a total transaction of $53,281,863.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 928,433,873 shares of the company's stock, valued at $185,696,058,938.73. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Amazon.com news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 266,396 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.01, for a total value of $53,281,863.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 928,433,873 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $185,696,058,938.73. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,700 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.39, for a total transaction of $489,753.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,726,894.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,112,990 shares of company stock worth $1,222,250,048 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amazon.com

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Amazon.com by 1.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 785,811,114 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $141,744,609,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724,687 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the fourth quarter valued at about $17,700,551,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 8.5% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 86,982,857 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $15,689,968,000 after purchasing an additional 6,810,145 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 56,666,183 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $10,221,446,000 after acquiring an additional 295,132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Amazon.com by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 51,920,953 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $7,888,870,000 after buying an additional 1,525,922 shares during the period. 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.

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