As Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock rose by more than 15% since it reported record-breaking second quarter performance, Brian Nowak, an analyst at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), expects another rally towards a new all-time high (ATH) over the next 12 months.
Nowak reiterated a ‘Buy’ rating for Amazon stock, according to a note sent to clients on August 16 and analyzed by Finbold on August 18. He set the bank’s 12-month price target for AMZN at $335. With Amazon’s stock trading at $260.50 during Tuesday’s pre-market session, Morgan Stanley believes that holding it over the next 12 months could yield a potential 28.6% upside.
The bank further predicted that AMZN stock could surge by 91.94% to hit $500 by the end of 2027, if Amazon Web Services (AWS) sales accelerate. Specifically, Nowak predicted a $500 price for Amazon fueled by $1 trillion in revenue for AWS over the next 8-10 years.
Amid rising demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) compute from enterprises, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy highlighted, in the second-quarter earnings report, that the company is undertaking massive data center expansion. As such, Amazon raised its 2026 AI spending forecast to $220 billion.
In its Q2 earnings, Amazon’s AWS registered a 37% uptick in sales year-over-year (YoY) to $42.2 billion. Consequently, this company’s revenue reached $200.6 billion, a 20% increase YoY, which was its first of a kind since its inception.
Amazon stock price forecast and performance
Following an ‘Overweight’ rating for Amazon stock price from Morgan Stanley, 39 Wall Street analysts surveyed by TipRanks have set an average 12-month price target of $332.95. As such, this collective target suggests a possible 27.4% return on investment from press time.
AMZN’s price has already signaled a bullish trend year-to-date (YTD), after forming several higher highs and higher lows. Notably, this company’s stock closed Monday trading at $262.31, thereby a 13% gain YTD.
AMZN’s stock YTD. Source: Finbold
If the AI boom continues uninterrupted, AMZN’s price could continue with its bullish outlook.
Featured image via Shutterstock
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Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) subsidiary Zoox is expanding its fully driverless robotaxi service to San Francisco and Las Vegas, according to a Reuters report, putting it on a direct collision course with Tesla’s autonomous vehicle ambitions in two high-profile markets.
Zoox Is Expanding Its Footprint
Zoox has been methodically building its footprint: the unit launched its first fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Las Vegas and has been testing vehicles across multiple U.S. cities. Critically, Zoox operates with no safety driver, while Tesla is only beginning to remove safety monitors as of January 2026. Last November, prediction markets assigned as high as 57% odds that Tesla would launch robotaxis in California by June 30. That never materialized.
Tesla’s Las Vegas expansion is part of its planned H1 2026 Robotaxi rollout, but the competitive timeline is tightening. Tesla shares traded around $340.62 on Monday, Aug. 17, down 22.25% year to-date, and analyst conviction is thin: only 44% of analysts are bullish, with 17 Hold ratings and eight Sell or Strong Sell ratings. Reddit sentiment on TSLA sits at a bearish 33.37. Meanwhile, Amazon trades around $261.68 with a consensus analyst target of $280.47 and 63 Buy ratings against just four Hold ratings.
What to Watch For Next
Investors should watch whether Tesla can accelerate its driverless transition before Zoox establishes brand recognition in Las Vegas and the Bay Area. A recently published 24/7 Wall St. analysis examines a scenario where Tesla’s stock could fall 70% if its autonomous vehicle lead erodes faster than the market expects. The autonomous race is no longer Tesla’s to lose alone.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Ekonomická teorie známá jako „crowding out“ říká, že nadměrné zadlužování státu vysává finanční trh, žene výnosy vzhůru a tím omezuje schopnost firem získávat nový kapitál a investovat. Aktuální vývoj na trzích ale naznačuje, že vedle deficitních rozpočtů hrají v růstu výnosů stále významnější roli také hyperscaleři a umělá inteligence.
Jen letos vydaly firmy s investičním ratingem dluhopisy v objemu 1,5 bilionu dolarů, což je přibližně o třetinu více než před rokem. Tempo zadlužování lze přirovnat k období kolem roku 2020, kdy firmy využívaly extrémně nízkých úrokových sazeb.
Dnes je situace odlišná. Výnosy rostou napříč výnosovou křivkou a dluh postupně zdražuje firmám i státu. Investoři mají stále vysoký apetit po expozici na AI a dluhopisy firem jako Alphabet nebo Meta představují atraktivnější a méně rizikovou alternativu k volatilnějším akciím.
Záplava dlouhodobého AI dluhu, za který Alphabet platí například 6,4 % a Meta ještě zhruba o procentní bod více, nutí investory zvažovat, zda je lepší svěřit kapitál na několik dekád historicky velmi úspěšným firmám, nebo americké vládě. Pro srovnání, americké třicetileté dluhopisy nesou 5,32 %, nejvíce za posledních 20 let.
To znovu otevírá debatu o teorii crowding out, podle které firmy postižené vysokými úrokovými sazbami omezují investice a fungují s tím, co mají. V případě americké vlády se to však pravděpodobně nestane. Zároveň zůstává poptávka po AI dluhu velmi silná. Důvody k výraznějšímu poklesu výnosů jsou tak v nejbližších měsících poměrně vzdálené.
Americká vláda utrácí jako nikdy předtím a rozpočtové deficity se dostávají na úrovně běžně pozorované pouze v obdobích hlubokých krizí. To ve spojení s překvapivě odolnou ekonomikou a inflačními tlaky způsobenými konfliktem v Íránu přispívá k růstu výnosů státních dluhopisů.
„Každý, kdo vydává dluh, soutěží s velkým počtem dalších emitentů,“ uvádí Tony Rodriguez, vedoucí dluhopisové strategie v Nuveen Asset Management. Vyšší konkurence automaticky znamená, že investoři požadují vyšší kompenzaci ze strany emitentů.
Největší vliv mají AI dluhopisy na výnosy desetiletých splatností. Ekonomové Bank of America odhadují, že tento efekt letos zvýšil výnosy desetiletých amerických dluhopisů o zhruba 30 bazických bodů. K růstu výnosů však přispěly také emise hypotečních cenných papírů (mortgage-backed securities), které hrály významnou roli už během krize z let 2007 a 2008.
Fondy nakupují AI dluh ve velkém
Podle investiční společnosti Morningstar navýšily fondy zaměřené výhradně na investiční dluhopisy podíl korporátních emisí na úkor méně atraktivního státního dluhu. V průměru nyní drží přibližně 30 % portfolií v korporátních dluhopisech, což je nejvíce za poslední tři roky.
„S příchodem nových emisí se musíme dívat na jejich prémii,“ říká Olumide Owolabi z Neuberger Berman. Do svého fondu spravujícího více než miliardu dolarů zařadil například dluhopisy Oraclu, který patří mezi nejzadluženější hyperscalery. „Státní dluhopisy prodáváme, protože vidíme lepší příležitosti jinde,“ uvedl portfolio manažer.
Tlak na výnosy zároveň komplikuje Trumpův boj za nižší úrokové sazby a levnější hypotéky či půjčky pro americké domácnosti. Pokles výnosů by navíc významně pomohl i americké státní pokladně při financování dluhu.
Za posledních 12 měsíců zaplatila americká vláda na úrocích rekordních 1,4 bilionu dolarů. Náklady na obsluhu dluhu se od roku 2020 ztrojnásobily a pokud sazby zůstanou na současných úrovních, mohou do listopadu 2028 vzrůst až na 1,7 bilionu dolarů.
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) August 18, 2026 Umělá inteligence si žádá další kapitál
Velká část hyperscalerů během vrcholu výsledkové sezóny zvýšila výhled kapitálových výdajů na další kvartály. Dá se proto očekávat, že společnosti jako Amazon, Alphabet nebo Nvidia budou na dluhopisový trh chodit pro kapitál i nadále.
Podle odhadů Barclays by objem nově vydaných korporátních dluhopisů mohl letos dosáhnout téměř 1,2 bilionu dolarů, což je meziročně o 474 miliard více. Za většinu tohoto nárůstu by přitom měli stát právě technologičtí giganti.
Hlavním důvodem, proč velké technologické firmy vydávají nové dluhopisy, je klesající provozní cash flow, které nedokáže držet krok s rostoucími CAPEXy. Hyperscaleři již jednoduše negenerují dostatek hotovosti na financování AI infrastruktury z vlastních zdrojů, a proto musí hledat kapitál prostřednictvím nového dluhu nebo emisí akcií.
Amazon’s ambition to turn its cloud computing business into a $1 trillion-a-year revenue engine is still a long way from becoming reality, but the pursuit of that target could create substantial value for shareholders, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak.
Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy recently said AWS could "very possibly" become a business generating $1 trillion in annual revenue, highlighting the scale of the opportunity management sees in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
"We long believed AWS could become a few hundred billion dollar revenue business," Amazon said, "and now believe it'll be at least double that, and very possibly be a $1 trillion annual revenue business for us in time with very appealing accompanying free cash flow and return on invested capital."
The company has also sought to reassure investors that the expansion of AI-related workloads will not necessarily come at the expense of profitability.
"We've done this before in the first era of cloud computing, just over a longer time horizon where demand built more gradually than it has in AI. But we see the margins and returns in AI tracking what we saw with core at the same point of evolution. Actually a little ahead."
Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, is currently generating about $170 billion in annualized sales.
That means revenue would have to increase almost sixfold for AWS to reach the $1 trillion milestone.
While AWS is unlikely to reach $1 trillion in revenue anytime soon, Nowak believes Amazon’s shares could benefit considerably as the company scales its cloud infrastructure.
In a recent note, the Morgan Stanley analyst outlined a scenario in which AWS could reach $1 trillion in annual revenue within the next eight to 10 years.
He also sees a possibility for Amazon’s overall earnings before interest and taxes to reach $500 billion over the same period.
Such a growth trajectory could support a share price of $500 by the end of 2027, according to the model.
That would be roughly double Amazon’s recent share price of around $261.
Morgan Stanley has already raised its Amazon price target to $335 from $330 following the company’s second-quarter earnings while reiterating an Overweight rating on it.
The revised target represents roughly 28% upside from Amazon’s Monday close of $261.31.
The more immediate investment case therefore does not depend on AWS reaching its ultimate $1 trillion target.
Instead, investors could benefit from continued cloud growth, rising AI demand and the resulting expansion in Amazon’s earnings.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence has created an enormous need for computing power, putting data-center capacity at the center of Amazon’s long-term growth strategy.
Nowak estimates Amazon will add 6 gigawatts of capacity in 2026 and another 8 gigawatts in 2027.
His longer-term model assumes AWS could continue adding roughly 8 gigawatts annually after that.
He described the assumption as a "reasonable range," while acknowledging that forecasting infrastructure additions several years into the future is considerably more difficult.
Amazon has not disclosed its precise current data-center capacity.
Jassy said during an earnings call for the company’s September quarter that Amazon had added 3.8 gigawatts of data-center capacity over the preceding 12 months.
More recently, Jassy reiterated that Amazon is on pace to double its power capacity by the end of 2027 compared with 2025 levels.
The ability to bring additional capacity online will be particularly important if AI demand continues to expand rapidly.
Without enough computing infrastructure, AWS may struggle to convert strong customer demand into corresponding revenue growth.
Nowak believes capacity is only part of the equation. The other major variable is how effectively AWS can monetize every watt of computing power it adds.
According to his estimates, each incremental watt currently generates about $8 in revenue for Amazon.
If AWS can increase that figure to $12 per watt, the company could potentially reach $1 trillion in annual revenue as early as 2035.
Technological advances could help cloud companies generate more economic value from existing power resources.
Improvements in computing efficiency, software, chip performance and data-center utilization could all increase the revenue generated from each unit of electricity.
That makes the economics of AI infrastructure just as important as the sheer amount of capacity Amazon can build.
The $1 trillion projection remains highly dependent on continued growth in demand for AI computing.
"As long as innovation and demand for [generative AI] tools continue to scale, we still believe each hyperscaler's ability to bring on compute capacity is the key factor driving forward revenue growth," Nowak wrote.
Beyond 2028, however, Amazon could encounter a range of constraints.
Its expansion will depend on the availability of servers and racks, improvements in power efficiency, regulatory approvals and the speed at which new data centers can be constructed.
There is also uncertainty over how long the current pace of AI investment can continue.
DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria told MarketWatch that any projection of $1 trillion in AWS revenue is "bold speculation."
He believes AWS could reasonably grow by 40% to 50% this year, but warned that "extrapolating beyond that is more than ambitious."
"There is no hard information Mr. Jassy or anybody else has to quantify a market that didn't even exist three years ago," Luria said.
For Amazon investors, the trillion-dollar AWS target is therefore better viewed as a long-term indication of the company’s ambitions than as a near-term earnings forecast.
Even if AWS falls short of that figure, sustained AI demand, expanding infrastructure and better monetization of computing capacity could still make the cloud division a powerful driver of Amazon’s future growth.
The reporting tool in question. (BigStock Photo / hadrian) Amazon is reportedly cutting the spines off old books and scanning the pages at a Las Vegas facility, presumably to train AI models on text that exists almost nowhere else.
The company won’t confirm that’s the reason. It gave us the same statement it provided to 404 Media, which broke the story: it “purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use.”
But what really got my attention (and professional admiration) was 404 Media’s means of discovering this was happening at all: reporter Emanuel Maiberg put an Apple AirTag in a rare book and watched where it went, like a biologist tracking an endangered salmon.
Maiberg, a co-founder of 404 Media, has been digging into this topic for a while. He reported in July that booksellers were seeing a massive surge in bulk orders from buyers who didn’t haggle.
According to Maiberg’s latest story, a seller informed him that they’d received an order for about 1,000 books through the marketplace Biblio, and agreed to slip an AirTag supplied by 404 Media into one of them. 404 Media granted the seller anonymity because the seller was worried the disclosure would hurt their business.
The book flew out of a California airport to Milwaukee, sat for two weeks in a distribution warehouse outside Kenosha, Wis., then went west by truck, making an overnight stop in Grand Junction, Colo., before arriving at an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas known as LAS8.
As Maiberg recounts in the story, he was initially confused. LAS8 is largely a print-on-demand operation. It prints and ships books as customers order them, the opposite of destroying them.
But the AirTag put the book at the north end of the building, which Amazon employees who posted on a workers’ forum described as a separate operation with its own code: VGT3. Its logo, painted at the entrance, is a T. rex with an open book in its hands. Employees described a split operation: some workers cut books, others received them and scanned bar codes.
Booksellers told Maiberg the bulk orders never included the very rarest books, the ones old enough to predate ISBNs, suggesting that buyers were working methodically through the serial numbers assigned to every published book.
A history of reportorial tracking This technique of journalistic investigation has actually been around for a while.
The Basel Action Network, a Seattle nonprofit, started planting GPS trackers inside old printers and monitors in 2014, dropping them at Goodwill locations and recyclers around the country to find out where America’s electronic waste actually ends up.
Nearly a third of the tracked devices were exported. Two old TVs dropped at Oregon recyclers traveled to a warehouse in south Seattle, then to the Port of Seattle, and to junkyards in Hong Kong. BAN’s trackers led to federal conspiracy charges against Total Reclaim, the Seattle recycler that had been handling that Oregon e-waste.
Over the years, others have adopted the same tactics. ABC News put trackers in plastic bags dropped at Walmart and Target recycling bins in 10 states, and Finland’s public broadcaster hid them in used clothing to trace where donated fast fashion actually ends up.
What’s different now is the hardware. BAN worked with MIT and used cellular trackers that needed a data plan. Maiberg used a $29 AirTag that reports its position by pinging any nearby iPhone.
What’s going on at VGT3? Sure, it’s possible that the slicing and scanning at Amazon’s VGT3 could be for something other than training AI models. Amazon has digitized books for two decades, for example, going back to Search Inside the Book. But that program runs on files publishers submit themselves. It doesn’t require buying used copies on the open market and cutting the spines off.
The circumstantial evidence pointing to AI is strong.
The books are rare titles with almost no resale market, but that’s exactly what makes them valuable as training data. The text was never digitized, and books printed before the AI boom are free of the machine-generated writing that degrades AI models trained on it.
The bookseller who sold the tracked shipment put it plainly to Maiberg: the books have historical and sentimental value, and the AI companies destroying them don’t care about that.
Cutting the spine is faster for scanning. It’s also the specific act that made Anthropic’s version of this legal: in June 2025, a federal judge ruled that buying print books, stripping the bindings and scanning them was fair use, because the digital copy replaced an original that no longer existed.
The same ruling went against Anthropic on books it had downloaded from pirate sites, which is the claim the company has since settled for $1.5 billion.
As someone who has covered Amazon for a while, I should note that this could be some “peculiar” project that actually looks nothing like anything people are speculating about, which will only become clear “in the fullness of time,” to use some of the favorite phrases inside a company known for being “willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.”
But in the meantime, it’s pretty fascinating to see everyday technology being used in a creative way to uncover something that otherwise might have never come to light.
On a recent episode of The Investor’s Podcast (838), Daniel Mahncke and Shawn O’Malley argued that Amazon offers more asymmetric upside than its hyperscaler peers: “Amazon has literally built one of the largest chip businesses in the world in the last couple of years, and barely anyone has even noticed.”
Amazon’s silicon business now exceeds a $25 billion annualized run rate, is growing at a triple-digit percentage, and has expanded from about a $10 billion run rate in under a year.
The $25B Chip Business Hiding Inside AWS Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) has scaled its custom silicon operation faster than most investors realize. On the Q2 FY2026 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy told analysts AWS grew 36.7% year over year, the fastest growth in 18 quarters. On the show, the hosts suggested the current $25 billion run rate for the chips business “could even be double that or closer to $50 billion” if Amazon began selling chips externally.
Amazon’s Trainium2 is fully subscribed with 1.4 million chips landed, powering the majority of inference on Bedrock. Project Rainier is the world’s largest operational AI compute cluster with more than 500,000 Trainium2 chips training Anthropic’s Claude, and OpenAI committed to roughly 2 GW of Trainium capacity beginning 2027. On the CPU side, Graviton is used by 98% of the top 1,000 EC2 customers.
AWS’s $496B Backlog Supports the Silicon Expansion AWS revenue reached $42.2 billion in Q2 FY2026, with operating income of $16.6 billion and a 39% operating margin. Even more exciting, the company’s $496 billion backlog tells the forward story, growing at triple-digit rates year over year.
Amazon’s capital spending is climbing to match. Q2 CapEx was $53.1 billion, with roughly $200 billion planned for FY2026. Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy has framed AWS as capable of becoming “a trillion-dollar annual revenue business for us in time.”
Google’s AI Rally Has Left Amazon Far Behind Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) offers a natural comparison, with its own custom TPU stack and hyperscale cloud. Google Cloud accelerated to 82% growth in Q2 FY2026, reaching $24.77 billion, with Q2 CapEx of $44.9 billion. The show hosts flagged that both companies are guiding to roughly $200 billion in CapEx and that free cash flow has turned negative as a result.
What differs is the market’s reception. At the time of recording, Alphabet was up roughly 75% while Amazon was up just 0.5% over 12 months. The hosts laid out the case for Amazon stock today, saying: “Since Amazon has benefited less from the AI hype cycle, there’s probably less for the stock to lose in terms of giving up gains,” and “It does feel like [Amazon] has a lot more room to catch up.”
Amazon’s Valuation Creates an Asymmetric AI Setup After adjusting for a $17 billion markup due to Amazon’s Anthropic stake, Amazon trades closer to 17-18x operating cash flow, which the hosts called “pretty attractive for a company of that quality.” The forward P/E sits at 28.3, with analyst consensus firmly bullish at 59 buy or strong buy ratings versus 3 hold and no sell ratings, and a target price of $327 vs a current share price of $260.
Amazon’s custom-silicon business, Trainium and Graviton, has become a core part of AWS. This business supports Anthropic, has attracted a major OpenAI commitment, and generates more than $25 billion in annualized revenue. The risk is that Amazon must spend roughly $200 billion this year to satisfy an AI demand curve that remains difficult to forecast.
Yet with Amazon trailing dramatically behind Alphabet, investors may be getting one of the world’s fastest-growing chip franchises without paying the same AI premium attached to its peers.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Amazon's (AMZN -0.51%) investment in Anthropic has become something more than a side bet for the tech giant. In recent quarters, the company has reported over $50 billion in non-operating pretax income primarily tied to revaluations of its Anthropic stake, a contribution big enough to shift its headline profit numbers on its own. Amazon has put about $13 billion into Anthropic so far, and its filings show that stake to have a carrying value near $190 billion as Anthropic's private-market valuation has climbed toward the trillion-dollar mark.
Image source: Getty Images.
That financial stake sits atop a deep commercial partnership. Anthropic has agreed to spend more than $100 billion over 10 years on AWS technologies and Amazon's custom Trainium chips, locking in up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity to train and run Claude models on Amazon's cloud. The result is that Amazon benefits twice -- once from the mark-to-market gains on its equity and again from Anthropic's long-term commitment to spend heavily with AWS.
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Alphabet's (GOOG -0.61%) (GOOGL -0.55%) exposure to Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +4.45%) looks different now that the rocket company is public. SpaceX completed the largest IPO in history on June 12, pricing shares at $135 and entering the market with a valuation near $1.8 trillion. The company has more recently traded in the $1.7 trillion to $1.9 trillion range as investors have digested its first earnings report, which was released earlier this month. Alphabet's original $900 million investment from 2015 has turned into a mid-single-digit-percentage stake worth roughly $80 billion to $90 billion at recent prices, a gain of more than 90 times that initial outlay.
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The big change for investors is transparency. SpaceX is no longer a black box on Alphabet's balance sheet. The stake is now a liquid asset with a clear market value that fluctuates daily. Alphabet can choose to keep the shares as a long-term bet on commercial space and space-based AI compute, or sell part or all of the stake to fund new investments in AI.
The SpaceX IPO could be good or bad for Alphabet, depending on your perspective. The market's shifting view of SpaceX can inject more volatility into Alphabet's reported earnings, and may make it harder for investors to separate Alphabet's core operating performance from the market noise around the rocket company's stock. On top of that, much of Alphabet's multibillion-dollar position is still locked up, as the phased release of insiders' shares will continue over the next year or so.
So Alphabet management has limited flexibility to realize those gains or reduce its exposure even if SpaceX's share price slides.
Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image Credits:Studio 642 / Getty Images Amazon is buying tons of rare books, cutting off their spines, and scanning them for AI training, according to 404 Media, which placed a tracking device in a rare book that ultimately arrived at an Amazon facility in Las Vegas.
The facility, known as VGT3, identifies itself with a symbol of a dinosaur holding a book in its claws. Amazon told 404 Media in a statement that it “purchases books through commercial channels to improve the products and services customers use.”
Companies like Amazon need unfathomably large amounts of text to train their LLMs, which have already ingested what they can from the internet (and, in Anthropic’s case, illegally pirated books). Rare books, especially ones that are out of print or impossible to find on the internet, offer a new source of coveted training data.
These texts are especially valuable since there’s no chance that anything published before 2022 was written by an LLM. When LLMs train on AI-generated text, they risk “model collapse,” which can occur when the quality of an LLM’s outputs degrade after ingesting too much AI-generated text.
Amazon is very far from its goal of achieving $1 trillion in cloud revenue, but it could deliver handsome returns for investors as it pursues that target, an analyst notes.
Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management started selling Alphabet (GOOG -0.66%) (GOOGL -0.73%) in the fourth quarter of 2025 while continuing to hold a large stake in Amazon (AMZN -0.82%) and other tech stocks. Ackman also bought a new position in Microsoft. In a post on X dated May 16, 2026, Ackman explained that he sold the Alphabet position to free up cash for Microsoft. But he also apparently sees better prospects in Amazon.
Pershing Square's mid-year update to investors reiterated its expectation that Amazon will grow its earnings at more than 20% annually, driven by opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) and continued e-commerce growth.
While Pershing Square trimmed its Amazon position in Q2, the position still accounts for about 10% of the firm's reported assets on its SEC Form 13F, making it the fourth-largest holding. Bill Ackman's thesis behind the investment continues to play out almost exactly as he predicted when he originally bought the stock in April 2025.
Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital. Image source: Getty Images.
Amazon is performing as expected Pershing Square's investment case for Amazon is centered on the company's two growth engines: Amazon Web Services (AWS) and e-commerce. At the time of the initial investment, Ackman expected rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) tools on AWS to potentially reaccelerate growth. And that's exactly what happened.
AWS reported 17% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2 2025 when Ackman initially bought the stock. In the most recent quarter, growth accelerated to 37% -- its fastest pace in more than four years.
Amazon's total revenue rose 20% year over year in the second quarter, while operating income jumped 43% to $27 billion. That also supports Ackman's view that the retail business has room for margin expansion.
Amazon has been investing in robotics and tightening inventory management to lift retail profitability -- and those improvements are showing up in operating income growth. Over time, operating profits could continue to climb, aided by advertising momentum and ongoing warehouse automation.
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Ackman expects Amazon to deliver high double-digit earnings growth Amazon stock has been weighed down by aggressive increases in capital spending to support the data center build-out. As a result of this spending, Amazon's free cash flow dipped to negative $8.8 billion in the second quarter.
Pershing Square sold about a quarter of its Amazon stake in Q2, but that doesn't appear to reflect a bearish view on the stock. Ackman's current view on Amazon was revealed in the firm's mid-year update released in August, in which it expressed belief that the market is underestimating Amazon's resilience and "significant growth runway." Ackman expects new data center capacity to be absorbed by AI inference workloads and earn attractive returns over time.
The firm likely sold some of its Amazon position to make room for other new positions in Visa, Mastercard, S&P Global, and Netflix. But this doesn't mean Ackman has turned bearish on the cloud computing leader.
Ackman still sees Amazon compounding earnings at over 20% annually, which is consistent with the Wall Street consensus. The stock trades around 22x forward earnings, which is not expensive for this level of earnings growth, and could support market-beating gains assuming Amazon delivers on those expectations.
John Ballard has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Mastercard, Microsoft, Netflix, S&P Global, and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Canandaigua National Bank and Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 55,944 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock, valued at approximately $13,334,000. Amazon.com makes up approximately 1.1% of
GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 13.9% during the undefined quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 261,491 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after acquiring an additional 31,872 shares during the
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) and Meta (NASDAQ: META) both reported second-quarter results in late July, revealing the same pressure: AI infrastructure is consuming cash.
Peter Thiel's macro fund has returned to US-listed equities with Amazon as its largest disclosed holding, but the rest of the portfolio points to a bigger wager on infrastructure powering artificial intelligence. Thiel Macro reported $418.7 million of 13F holdings at the end of June after disclosing no holdings at the end of December 2025 or March 2026.
BSN CAPITAL PARTNERS Ltd trimmed its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 66.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 200,000 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 390,573 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com comprises about 1.9%
First Financial Bank Trust Division raised its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 5.2% in the undefined quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 74,462 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after purchasing an additional 3,692 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts
Global Wealth Strategies and Associates lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 468.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,351 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after purchasing an additional 27,479 shares during
Eastern Bank trimmed its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 4.6% in the undefined quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 670,857 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 32,215 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up approximately 2.4% of Eastern
CX Institutional lowered its position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 1.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 175,196 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 3,449 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up about 1.2% of CX Institutional's
AMS Capital Ltda reduced its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) by 37.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 97,627 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 58,778 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts for about 8.1% of AMS Capital Ltda’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. AMS Capital Ltda’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $20,831,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $346,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Amazon.com by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,509 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Sfam LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 3.4% in the first quarter. Sfam LLC now owns 1,224 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $255,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 3.4% in the first quarter. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. now owns 1,206 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $251,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CoreFirst Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during the first quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust now owns 3,620 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $754,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Benchmark boosted their target price on Amazon.com from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Amazon.com from $332.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $333.00 price target (up from $320.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $320.00 price target (down from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $322.56.
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More Amazon.com News Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Institutional buying supports sentiment. Thrive Capital disclosed a roughly $215 million Amazon position, while Baupost Group added 625,100 shares and Dodge & Cox increased its holding by approximately 1.6 million shares. Thrive Capital discloses Amazon stake Positive Sentiment: AWS remains the central bullish catalyst. Commentary points to accelerating AWS growth for five consecutive quarters, a substantial backlog and customer demand extending into 2028. Amazon Web Services also became AppFolio’s preferred cloud provider, adding evidence of enterprise demand. AppFolio selects AWS Positive Sentiment: New growth opportunities are expanding. Amazon won a Space Force communications contract, while its AI infrastructure spending is helping drive demand for data-center and semiconductor suppliers. Analysts cited in recent coverage remain bullish on both Amazon and Alphabet. Amazon wins Space Force contract Neutral Sentiment: Valuation remains a debate. Amazon is viewed favorably versus some large-cap peers, but coverage notes that its forward earnings multiple is higher than its trailing multiple. That may reflect expected earnings growth, though it leaves less room for execution disappointments. Negative Sentiment: Retail data raised demand concerns. U.S. retail sales fell in July, with online spending declining after Amazon’s summer sales event. Higher fuel and operating costs may also pressure big-box retailers and consumer purchasing power. July retail sales decline Negative Sentiment: AI investment brings financial and execution risk. Amazon and other hyperscalers are issuing significant debt to fund infrastructure expansion, increasing concerns about returns on spending and potential pressure on future profits. Amazon’s lack of a dividend may also limit appeal for income-focused investors. Negative Sentiment: Twitch backlash adds reputational risk. Twitch’s decision to use livestream content for Amazon AI training, with the feature reportedly enabled automatically, has angered creators and could create privacy, regulatory and user-retention concerns. Twitch AI data-sharing backlash Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com In other Amazon.com news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.40, for a total transaction of $4,074,007.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,729,480.60. This trade represents a 52.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total transaction of $620,003.94. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,427,876.40. This represents a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months, insiders have sold 62,650 shares of company stock worth $16,535,457. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Price Performance AMZN stock opened at $262.65 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $247.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $238.66. The firm has a market cap of $2.83 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12 month low of $196.00 and a 12 month high of $287.20.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $3.93. The company had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
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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ToplineA coalition of Amazon Teamsters, the Alliance for a Greater New York and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union rallied at New York City Hall to push passage of the Mayor Zohran Mamdani-backed “Delivery Protection Act” that would require Amazon to employ all last-mile delivery drivers in the city rather than rely on subcontractors.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 3: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers a speech to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States of America at City Hall on July 3, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Anna Connors - Pool/Getty Images)
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Key FactsThe Delivery Protection Act would prohibit Amazon, FedEx and other logistics companies from using third-party contractors for last-mile deliveries and core warehouse services throughout the five New York City boroughs.
Joining the Teamsters in support of the Act are the AFL-CIO-affiliated New York City Central Labor Council and a supermajority of city council members.
Opposition comes from a broad-based business coalition—Amazon, FedEx, logistics and trucking firms, all five borough chambers of commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Tech: NYC, the Supply Chain Federation, the Trucking Association of New York, the Five Borough Jobs Campaign and others.
A study commissioned by the Five Borough Jobs Campaign estimated passage would increase annual delivery costs to New York households by $664 and threaten more than 10,000 city workers.
With the bill pending a City Council vote, supporters have intensified their efforts to push the vote forward after Mayor Mamdani threw his support behind it—calling Amazon’s contractor-based delivery model exploitative and a danger to NYC workers, drivers and pedestrians.
Key BackgroundFirst introduced last September by Queens council member Tiffany Cabán and carried over into 2026, the Delivery Protection Act would require a license to operate any last-mile facilities in the city and mandate that all delivery and warehouse hubs operate with employees not contract workers. Supporters of the Act claim that Amazon uses its third-party Delivery Service Providers model to “underpay workers, ignore unsafe working conditions, and shield itself from accountability when it breaks the law or endangers communities.”
Crucial Quote“Corporations like Amazon build billion-dollar business models by insulating themselves from accountability through a system of exploitative subcontracting,” said Mayor Mamdani. Calling the Delivery Protection Act a commonsense regulation to protect workers, he added, “It’s time to end the subcontracting model that puts profits over people and build an economy that works for working New Yorkers.”
Amazon Defends Its DSP Business ModelAmazon argues the Delivery Protect Act would negatively impact more than 40 Delivery Service Providers and threaten over 5,000 jobs at these small business partners. In testimony submitted in April, the company said that DSP drivers earn an average of nearly $24 per hour in wages, with full-time drivers receiving health care coverage and paid time off that exceed city minimums. Many DSP firms also offer additional benefits, including retirement accounts and tuition reimbursement. Amazon also cited more than $2.5 billion invested in safety initiatives since 2019, including an in-person Last Mile Driver Academy that has trained over 180,000 drivers, camera-equipped delivery vans and more than 800 electric cargo bikes deployed in Manhattan and Brooklyn. If the Act passes, Amazon warned it may be forced to relocate its 10 distribution centers outside New York City, resulting in slower delivery times to customers.
Chief CriticThe Wall Street Journal Editorial Board argues that the Delivery Protect Act is a test case for the Teamsters and its allies to eliminate subcontracted delivery work nationwide. The board points to United Parcel Service laying off tens of thousands of workers, attributing the cuts in part to the cost of its 2023 Teamsters labor contract. It claims Amazon’s flexible and efficient third-party DPS network is now delivering many of the packages that unionized UPS drivers would previously have handled. Noting that the National Labor Relations Act prohibits subcontracted and independent contractors to unionize, the board wrote, “Abolishing the independent contracting model has been a longtime goal of the political left, and they don’t mind if they run over the little guy in the process.”
TangentAmazon has been at odds with the New York political establishment before. In 2019, Amazon scuttled plans to open a second NYC headquarters in Queens after opposition from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, state senators and local activists—a move that cost the city an estimated 25,000 high-paying jobs. At the time, Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted the decision, stating “a small group of politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community.”
Further ReadingAmazon Workers Rally at NYC City Hall as Delivery Bill Gains Momentum (Sourcing Journal)
Mamdani Wants to Deliver Amazon to the Teamsters (Wall Street Journal)
A Fight Brews Between Mamdani and Amazon Over Delivery Workers (New York Times)
Jeff Bezos is dumping shares of Amazon (AMZN -0.94%), as it trades around its all-time high. The company's founder and executive chairman filed documents showing he sold 1.2 million shares of the stock last week, after another filing indicated he could sell up to 15 million shares in total. If he sold them at the market price at the time of filing, the total would exceed $4 billion.
That's a lot of cash, even for someone as wealthy as Bezos. Should Amazon shareholders consider lightening up their exposure to Amazon as well? Here's what investors need to know.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon Executive Chairman. Image source: Amazon.
Bezos' stock sale is part of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan established last year. Such plans are prearranged well ahead of stock sales to prevent insiders from trading on nonpublic information. In other words, Bezos isn't seeing any signs that the stock is too expensive or that a sudden change in Amazon's fortunes is on the horizon.
In fact, Amazon appears to have a long runway ahead of it. Its retail operations are firing on all cylinders, with revenue climbing about 16% year over year across its North American and International segment last quarter. That was helped by shifting Prime Day from the third quarter to the second quarter, but still an impressive result. The segment's operating margin continues to expand, driven by strong advertising sales and Prime membership growth.
The core of Amazon, though, has become its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services. The company is spending tens of billions of dollars each quarter to build additional compute capacity, which has pushed its total free cash flow into negative territory over the past 12 months. While some investors have balked at all that spending, Amazon's results and outlook suggest it's a solid investment.
AWS revenue accelerated for the fifth straight quarter, climbing 37% year over year. What's more, operating margin expanded to 39.4% in the most recent quarter. Both trends could continue.
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Amazon's rapid increase in capital deployment should enable it to recognize its growing backlog more quickly in the coming quarters. Backlog reached $496 billion as of the end of the second quarter. Regarding margin, it should see expansion as more AI workloads move to Amazon's custom silicon, Trainium and Graviton, which produce better margins for Amazon and better price performance for its customers compared to traditional GPUs.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sees tremendous long-term potential for AWS. His comments during Amazon's second-quarter earnings call suggested it could become a $1 trillion annual revenue business. If it achieves just half of that, Amazon will generate hundreds of billions in free cash flow each year, sending the value of its shares significantly higher over time.
There's a reason Bezos still holds 880 million shares of Amazon, comprising the vast majority of his net worth. The outlook remains bright for the company.
It takes a lot for Elon Musk to admit he's wrong. A year ago, the leader of SpaceX and Tesla said that Anthropic would never be a leader in artificial intelligence (AI). Today, he has admitted this was incorrect, with Anthropic the fastest-growing AI start-up in the world, with annualized revenue estimated at double that of its competitor OpenAI.
For Musk, this means potential AI infrastructure revenue at SpaceX, which just signed a nice commitment from Anthropic. But there is another megacap technology company that may benefit even more from Anthropic's meteoric rise: Amazon (AMZN -0.94%).
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Massive cloud commitments
Amazon made an early bet to become the lead infrastructure backer for Anthropic, likely after its cloud competitor, Microsoft, did the same with OpenAI. Amazon has invested over $10 billion in Anthropic and has committed to investing a total of $33 billion in the start-up. In return, Anthropic is going to utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider, spending $100 billion or more with Amazon.
This could be highly meaningful for AWS, especially if Anthropic keeps up this growth trajectory and soon clears $100 billion in annualized revenue, eventually reaching hundreds of billions a year. Last quarter, AWS revenue grew 37% year over year to an annualized run rate of $169 billion. A lot of this growth is due to Anthropic.
On top of this revenue growth, Amazon holds an equity stake in Anthropic estimated at over 10% (the exact figure is not known today). If Anthropic goes public in the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history -- which it is reportedly preparing for later this year -- Amazon's stake could be worth something like $250 billion.
Elon Musk. Image source: The White House.
Is Amazon stock a buy because of Anthropic?
The appreciation of Amazon's stake in Anthropic will be a nice boost for Amazon, but the real value comes from Anthropic's commitments to AWS, including Amazon's homegrown computer chips. This will set the standard for other AI start-ups and Fortune 500 enterprises, leading to even more revenue growth in the years ahead.
Amazon management believes that AWS can eventually grow to $1 trillion in revenue. It may take a decade or longer for that to happen, but it gives the business a massive growth runway. Right now, Amazon trades at a market cap of $2.86 trillion. If Amazon grows its AWS revenue to $1 trillion, the stock may be worth multiples of that on its own, not even including the e-commerce and advertising businesses.
For its relationship with Anthropic and more, Amazon stock is worth buying right now.
Brett Schafer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
As an e-commerce giant expands its cloud and advertising dominance, a specialized ticketing player navigates a challenging post-IPO landscape. Choosing between Amazon.com (AMZN -0.94%) and StubHub (STUB +5.21%) depends on your preference for scale versus niche focus.
Amazon.com dominates global online retail and cloud infrastructure, while StubHub operates as a leading digital marketplace for live event tickets. Investors often weigh the diversified stability of a tech titan against the turnaround potential of a specialized service provider during periods of economic shifting. Each company offers unique exposure to different corners of the consumer economy.
The case for Amazon.comAmazon.com operates a massive ecosystem that includes its famous online storefront, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform, and a rapidly growing advertising business. It serves a wide range of customers including consumers, independent sellers, and large enterprises that rely on its infrastructure for digital operations.
The company maintains a global fulfillment network to support its position among retail stocks while investing heavily in generative artificial intelligence for its corporate developers and cloud customers. This diverse revenue base allows the firm to weather shifts in consumer spending while capitalizing on the long term growth of digital services.
In its 2025 fiscal year (FY), revenue reached $716.9 billion, representing a growth rate of 12.4% compared to the previous year. This expansion helped the company generate a net income of $77.7 billion during the same period, showing substantial bottom line strength. The net margin, which measures how much profit a company keeps from every dollar of sales after all expenses are paid, sat at 10.8%. This performance reflects the company's ability to scale its high margin segments, such as advertising and cloud services, alongside its traditional logistics operations.
As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio was 0.4x. This ratio compares a company's total debt to its shareholder equity, and a lower number generally suggests a more stable financial foundation. The current ratio, which measures the ability to pay short term obligations using assets that can be converted to cash within a year, was 1.1x. Free cash flow, or the cash remaining after paying for operations and capital equipment, was $7.7 billion for the fiscal year.
The case for StubHubStubHub operates a global marketplace that connects ticket buyers with sellers, including individual fans and professional resellers. The company recently partnered with Vivenu to give event organizers direct access to its audience of over 125 million ticket seekers. It relies on major digital platforms, including the Apple App Store, to distribute its applications and maintain its presence in the mobile commerce market. These partnerships are critical for reaching fans who increasingly rely on smartphones for ticket purchasing and event entry.
In FY 2025, revenue reached $1.7 billion, which was a slight decline of 1.4% from the prior year. The company reported a net loss of $1.9 billion for the period, resulting in a negative net margin of 109.2%. This indicates that the company's total expenses, including non-cash charges and marketing costs, significantly exceeded the money it brought in from ticket sales during the fiscal year. Management continues to focus on optimizing the global marketplace to return to profitability.
As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio was 0.8x. The current ratio stood at about 1.0x, indicating the company has just enough current assets to cover its immediate financial liabilities as they come due. Free cash flow for the year was $191.2 million. This metric suggests that while the company reports net losses, its operations still generate positive cash after investment.
Risk profile comparisonAmazon faces intense competition in the retail and cloud sectors from well funded rivals, including Microsoft. Ongoing regulatory scrutiny regarding antitrust and labor practices in the United States, China, and India could lead to significant fines or forced changes to its business model.
Furthermore, the company relies on specific global suppliers for high end chips, creating potential bottlenecks for its hardware and cloud computing divisions. Cybersecurity and data privacy remain critical, as any security failure could cause significant reputational harm.
StubHub deals with heavy competition from original ticket issuers and other secondary marketplaces that may have different cost structures. The company recently agreed to a $10 million settlement with the FTC concerning its pricing practices and continues to face class action litigation regarding its business relationships.
It also relies on cloud infrastructure provided by Amazon and Microsoft, making it vulnerable to service interruptions or sudden changes in search engine algorithms that drive traffic. The business also identified material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting.
Valuation comparisonWhile StubHub carries a lower Forward P/E and P/S ratio, Amazon.com offers a history of consistent profitability and much higher revenue growth.
MetricAmazon.comStubHubForward P/E22.7x16.7xP/S ratio4.0x1.5xValuation metrics sourced from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) and may differ from other data providers.
Both Amazon and StubHub provide goods and services to consumers, but beyond that, they are vastly different companies. The former is a tech powerhouse with expansive businesses ranging from its core e-commerce platform to self-driving cars. The latter focuses on the niche of ticketing for live events. Unless you want exposure to the live events market, I recommend Amazon as the stock to buy.
One key factor is StubHub's struggles to find its financial footing. In 2025, the company's net loss attributable to common shareholders totaled nearly $2 billion, a substantial increase from the prior year's loss of $55.1 million.
It seemed to be headed in the right direction this year when it reported net income attributable to common stockholders of $32.5 million in the first quarter. That changed when StubHub announced Q2 results, with the company slipping back to a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $40,000.
Meanwhile, Amazon is a profitable business, posting Q2 net income of $62.6 billion, up substantially from 2025's $18.2 billion, as revenue rose 20% year over year to $200.6 billion. Its investments in artificial intelligence have been criticized by some on Wall Street, but its AWS division experienced strong sales growth of 37% year over year to $42.2 billion, as customer demand for its AI offerings increased.
by Thomas Wilde on Aug 14, 2026 at 3:19 pmAugust 14, 2026 at 3:19 pm
(GeekWire File Photo) Amazon indicated for the first time this week that any video broadcast via its livestreaming platform Twitch could be used to train generative AI, unless users take steps to avoid it, which has caused a significant backlash from both audiences and content creators.
The story began with a post on the official Twitch Support account on X (formerly Twitter) which informed users of the existence of a new option on the Twitch dashboard. That option lets users opt out of Amazon using content on their channel to train generative AI.
That, in turn, served as a couple of additional implicit announcements: Amazon intends to feed Twitch content into its generative AI models, and this option is enabled by default for all Twitch accounts.. You have to actively turn it off or anything you broadcast via Twitch could be fed into “generative AI content models at Amazon.”
According to Twitch’s FAQ, the data gathered from Twitch may be used to train a future model “whose purpose is to generate or synthesize text, audio, images, or video.”
(To opt out of Amazon’s training on your own Twitch channel, go to the Settings menu, look for the “Training for Generative AI” section under Security and Privacy, and turn it off. Don’t be surprised if this takes more than one try, as several users have taken to social media to report that the training option likes to turn itself back on when you aren’t looking.)
Above, bottom: if you have a Twitch account, then as of Aug. 12, it has an option under Security and Privacy to allow you to opt out of your broadcasts being used as training data for an Amazon LLM. (Twitch screenshot) A follow-up stream from Twitch’s head of community, Mary Kish, poured some more gasoline on the flames. Kish aired a live interview with Mike Minton, chief product officer at Twitch, and Minton chose that moment to get uncommonly candid.
In response to viewers demanding to know why the AI settings on Twitch weren’t opt-in instead of opt-out, Minton said, “There’s an honest answer, and I think most of you can probably appreciate this. If it was opt-in, nobody would opt in.”
Kish and Minton made an additional point of drawing a distinction between AI-powered features that are already on Twitch, such as auto-captions, and the unspecified models that Amazon plans to use Twitch data to train.
“…I think our community has the reaction that I expected you guys to have, which is that you don’t like this,” Kish said. “Because this is industry standard, going other places [besides Twitch] won’t absolve you of this… it’s something that’s happening on livestreaming communities across the space.”
Twitch came out of the 2020 lockdowns in a period of massive growth, and for several years, accounted for roughly 80 to 90% of online livestreaming. Since then, however, its market share has steadily eroded. According to a July report by the Kyiv-based analytics firm StreamsCharts, YouTube Live and TikTok Live have both overtaken Twitch’s audience share, though Twitch does still handle nearly half of livestreamed video game content.
That, in turn, brings up some of its own issues.
“…It gets me really worried about all the elements I use in my streams,” Lance Icarus, a Seattle-based gaming broadcaster, told GeekWire via Discord. “I play indie games that are proud to not be GenAI. Can I stream that game knowing I’m feeding that playthrough into a machine?”
Icarus continued, “What about when I stream with guests? Some of them are voice talents who fought hard to gain rights against the very thing I’m asking them to do by streaming on our channel. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all the ramifications.”
Beyond the simple logistics, it’s hard to overstate the degree of hostility that Amazon and Twitch are facing over this move, from both broadcasters and audience members.
“They had to do it like this,” Seattle-based Twitch streamer Will Overgard told GeekWire. “Generative AI doesn’t make money, but selling data does. I guess they turned data collection on for everyone hoping enough people wouldn’t know to turn it off or forget about it so they’d have something to flog.”
Kish noted during her Aug. 12 stream that Twitch and Amazon are watching the numbers to see how many broadcasters actively opt out of being used as training data.
At time of writing, discussions are ongoing about what if any reaction this will draw from the creator community on Twitch, which still drives much of the platform’s business. One step that’s already been taken is that streamers have begun to tag their own broadcasts with “AIOptedOut” or “NoAI” to indicate their feelings on the matter. It’s now a question of whether audiences will follow suit.
An Amazon box moves along a conveyor belt at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey, U.S., December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
CompaniesAug 14 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab on Friday reinstated binding arbitration for its U.S. customers while also barring them from seeking class-action lawsuits, making it more difficult for users to address grievances in court.
In emails on Friday, Amazon said the changes are effective immediately and customers agree to the terms by continuing to use the company's services. Often, companies alert customers to upcoming changes to their terms of service weeks in advance.
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Previously, Amazon said customers should pursue legal claims in court in Washington state, where Amazon is based. Five years ago, Amazon revoked binding arbitration after facing tens of thousands of costly individual cases.
"We determined that reinstating the arbitration clause will offer customers a fast, cost-effective way to resolve disputes while still giving them the option of going to small claims court," a spokesperson said in a statement.
In 2021, Amazon was flooded with around 75,000 arbitration claims from customers claiming its Alexa service was recording them without their consent. It was part of a tactic some law firms use to overwhelm corporations with arbitration claims, forcing them to pay millions of dollars in fees to start the process and causing administrative headaches.
Amazon said in its new terms that 25 or more arbitration cases relating to the same matter in a six-month period would be considered a "mass arbitration" and would be settled in "batches of at least 25."
Courts have generally sided with corporations over language in their terms of service that dictate when and how customers can pursue legal recourse. Arbitration cases are settled privately before a third-party adjudicator, meaning disputes and any settlement typically are not made public.
Disputes with Amazon, including class-action suits, begun prior to Friday are not impacted by the new terms.
Reporting by Greg Bensinger in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Rosalba O'Brien
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Greg Bensinger joined Reuters as a technology correspondent in 2022 focusing on the world's largest technology companies. He was previously a member of The New York Times editorial board and a technology beat reporter for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He also worked for Bloomberg News writing about the auto and telecommunications industries. He studied English literature at The University of Virginia and graduate journalism at Columbia University. Greg lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.
Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options: https://bit.ly/2v9tH6D. AWS cloud accelerating for five straight quarters, strengthened by a significant backlog, is the biggest bullish indicator Kevin Hincks sees in Amazon (AMZN).
On the surface, the numbers look backwards. Amazon (AMZN -0.68%) trades at about 22 times earnings and about 30 times the earnings expected of it over the next year. Alphabet (GOOG -0.32%)(GOOGL -0.38%) trades at about 18 times earnings and about 27 times forward.
For both, next year costs more than last year. Ordinarily, that arithmetic means one thing -- profits are expected to fall.
And these aren't struggling businesses. So either the market expects earnings to decline at two of the largest companies on Earth, or the trailing numbers aren't what they appear.
It's mostly the second, though I'd stop short of calling either stock cheap once the reason is on the table.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Amazon: the $53 billion quarter Amazon earned $62.6 billion in the second quarter, up from $18.2 billion a year earlier. The release itself flags what happened, noting the quarter "includes non-operating pre-tax other income of $53.4 billion, primarily from our investments in Anthropic."
That windfall is nearly double the operating income Amazon produced in the same three months. And it sits inside the year of earnings the 22-times multiple divides by. Take it out, and the stock stops looking cheap.
The operating business is a different story, and an impressive one. Operating income rose 43% year over year to $27.5 billion even as trailing-12-month free cash flow swung to a $7.6 billion outflow, on net purchases of property and equipment that ran $66.1 billion higher than the year before.
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Amazon Web Services (AWS) grew 37% to $42.2 billion, its fastest pace in 18 quarters.
The spending is the forward story. Amazon lifted this year's capital spending plan to about $220 billion, citing rising memory costs. Depreciation from a buildout that size lands in the income statement for years afterward, which is likely a big part of why next year's expected earnings sit below the trailing figure.
Alphabet: the $98 billion mark-up Alphabet's version is bigger. Second-quarter net income rose 298% to $112.2 billion, and the company attributed the surge to other income of $98.0 billion, "primarily the result of net unrealized gains on our equity securities."
Those securities include stakes in SpaceX and Anthropic. Unrealized is the important word -- the gain is a mark-up on paper, not cash arriving. Of course, the same line would swing the other way if those valuations fell.
Beneath the mark-up, the operating engine looks a lot like Amazon's. Revenue rose 24% to $119.8 billion, operating income climbed 30% to $40.8 billion, and Google Cloud's revenue accelerated to 82% growth.
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The forward drag is the same, too. Capital spending doubled year over year to $44.9 billion in the quarter, and Alphabet raised its full-year plan to as much as $205 billion.
The depreciation is already arriving. It ran $7.1 billion in the second quarter, up about 42% from a year earlier, and free cash flow for the period was negative $5.9 billion.
The multiple that matters The estimates under those forward multiples imply Amazon earning about $9 per share over the next year against the $12.44 it earned over the past 12 months, and Alphabet about $13 against $19.93. Read as forecasts of the businesses, those could pass for collapses. They're mostly subtractions -- the windfalls coming back out.
In other words, the market isn't forecasting decline at either business. The multiples on next year's earnings sit above the ones on last year's because last year's rest on windfalls that won't repeat on any schedule. On next year's earnings, the base without the paper gains, both companies cost about 27 to 30 times.
A caveat on those forward figures. They're built on consensus earnings estimates, and I wouldn't hang a verdict on analysts' math. The companies' own disclosures point the same way, though: both are guiding capital spending near or above $200 billion this year, and depreciation from those budgets reaches income statements on multi-year schedules.
Which one wears the price better? I'd give the edge to Alphabet. It's the cheaper of the two on both bases, its operating margin expanded to 34% even while the spending doubled, and its cloud business is accelerating.
Sure, Amazon's business is running faster right now. Operating income rose 43% against Alphabet's 30%, and AWS is the bigger cloud by far. But at about 27 times forward earnings against about 30, Alphabet is arguably the better value of the two.
Neither is the bargain the multiple on last year's earnings advertises. Much of the number underneath it is mostly a mark-up on paper.
Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital held Amazon shares worth about $215 million as of the end of June, a regulatory filing showed on Friday, adding to the venture capital firm's list of tech and AI investments.
Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -3.36%) posted its second-quarter financial results on Aug. 4. The company's performance was strong. Revenue soared 92% year over year to $7.8 billion, while it almost cut its net losses in half, from $1 billion in the year-ago period to $541 million this time around. However, perhaps management commentary was even more noteworthy. And one thing in particular that SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk, said deserves investors' attention. Let's dig in.
Image source: The White House.
An exciting medium-term guidance
During SpaceX's second-quarter earnings conference call, Elon Musk talked about internal revenue projections. He said the company now expects to reach $1 trillion in revenue by 2030, up from its previous 2031 target. So far this year, SpaceX has generated about $12.5 billion in revenue. Analysts expect an average of about $44.58 billion for the full fiscal year 2026.
From there, it would need a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 118% to reach $1 trillion in revenue in four years. That's not entirely unheard of. Amazon (AMZN -0.52%) went public in May 1997 and reported net sales of $147.8 million that year. During its fiscal year 2001, it posted revenue of $3.1 billion, for a CAGR of roughly 114%. Still, that's not the norm, and it would be quite an impressive achievement for SpaceX.
Should you buy the stock?
Let's assume Musk is right and that by its fiscal year 2030, SpaceX will generate $1 trillion in revenue. Does that guarantee that the company will post excellent returns through then? Not at all. Revenue growth matters, but it's not the only thing that determines stock price appreciation. Valuation concerns and the inability to turn a profit are important as well. SpaceX may face questions on both fronts.
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The company's price-to-sales ratio is about 64, substantially higher than the reasonably valued range, which typically starts below 2. This suggests that some of the company's success is already baked into its share price, and even robust revenue growth might not be enough to lift the stock significantly higher. Also, SpaceX isn't currently profitable. And although it improved on that front during the second quarter, the company is also aggressively investing in its artificial intelligence (AI)-related ambitions.
That could prevent the company from turning a profit. Even so, for a company in the growth stage, revenue growth is often the most important determinant of stock market performance. The market tends to forgive red ink on the bottom line if the top-line is growing fast enough.
So, if Musk is right, there is an excellent chance that SpaceX will crush the market through 2030. But what if he's not? We know that Musk tends to set aggressive timelines that often get delayed. So, we shouldn't take his projection at face value. So, what's the verdict? There is significant uncertainty around the stock, and it could drop sharply if it runs into headwinds, given its valuation. SpaceX is too risky and too expensive at current levels. Investors should wait for a significant dip before buying its shares.
A consortium including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has reached a definitive agreement to buy a minority stake in Liverpool, the Premier League club's owners Fenway Sports Group said on Friday.
Dala Group LLC acquired a new stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 8,419 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,755,000. Amazon.com accounts for about 1.5% of Dala Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest position.
Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $158,348,557,000 after purchasing an additional 8,913,959 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 388,653,121 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $89,708,913,000 after purchasing an additional 6,971,680 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 225,120,994 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $51,753,622,000 after purchasing an additional 2,479,324 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the fourth quarter worth $32,868,735,000. Finally, Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,272,397,000 after buying an additional 98,090,585 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Stock Performance Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $265.13 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $238.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.03. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $287.20. The company has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a net margin of 17.44% and a return on equity of 18.00%. The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.39, for a total value of $278,390.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483,527 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,609,081.53. This trade represents a 0.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total transaction of $620,003.94. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 119,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,427,876.40. This trade represents a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 62,650 shares of company stock worth $16,535,457. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AMZN shares. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $335.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Arete Research raised their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $301.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, HSBC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $322.56.
Check Out Our Latest Report on AMZN
Key Amazon.com News Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act About Amazon.com (Free Report)
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.
Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Asian Market Circuit Breakers Hit Stocks, Not AI Demand Riot Platforms Re-Wires the Ledger for a $9B AI Power Play Nebius Just Exploded 34% on Blowout Earnings—Is It Time to Buy? Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
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Caerus Investment Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 33.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,415 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 4,671 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up about 0.8% of Caerus Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Caerus Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $1,961,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AMZN. MilWealth Group LLC increased its stake in Amazon.com by 79.0% during the 4th quarter. MilWealth Group LLC now owns 179 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership now owns 200 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Fairway Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 95.6% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 221 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 87.7% during the 4th quarter. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. now owns 229 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Trending Headlines about Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades AMZN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Benchmark boosted their price target on Amazon.com from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $335.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.56.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Amazon.com
Insiders Place Their Bets In other Amazon.com news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total value of $5,268,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,205,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $581,042,879.72. This represents a 0.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 6,370 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.39, for a total value of $1,671,424.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,527 shares in the company, valued at $127,659,819.53. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 62,650 shares of company stock worth $16,535,457. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Price Performance AMZN stock opened at $265.13 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $247.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $238.49. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1 year low of $196.00 and a 1 year high of $287.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.87.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 17.44% and a return on equity of 18.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
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.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Asian Market Circuit Breakers Hit Stocks, Not AI Demand Riot Platforms Re-Wires the Ledger for a $9B AI Power Play Nebius Just Exploded 34% on Blowout Earnings—Is It Time to Buy? Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
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NEXT HEADLINE »Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN Shares Sold by Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC
Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 42.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,823 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 3,628 shares during the quarter. Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $1,058,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Foguth Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 36.5% during the first quarter. Foguth Wealth Management LLC. now owns 7,967 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,659,000 after purchasing an additional 2,132 shares during the period. Financial Solutions Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in Amazon.com in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,867,000. Dala Group LLC purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,755,000. Krane Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Amazon.com during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $486,000. Finally, Henshaw Capital LLC lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Henshaw Capital LLC now owns 337,674 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $70,327,000 after acquiring an additional 14,500 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets Several brokerages recently issued reports on AMZN. Benchmark raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective (up from $275.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Amazon.com from $332.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, China Renaissance raised their target price on Amazon.com from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.56.
View Our Latest Report on Amazon.com
Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act Insider Activity at Amazon.com In other news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total value of $620,003.94. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 119,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,427,876.40. The trade was a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.39, for a total value of $278,390.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 483,527 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $134,609,081.53. The trade was a 0.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 62,650 shares of company stock worth $16,535,457 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Price Performance Shares of NASDAQ AMZN opened at $265.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $247.57 and a 200 day moving average of $238.49. The firm has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.33, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $287.20.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a net margin of 17.44% and a return on equity of 18.00%. The business had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Amazon.com Company Profile (Free Report)
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.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Asian Market Circuit Breakers Hit Stocks, Not AI Demand Riot Platforms Re-Wires the Ledger for a $9B AI Power Play Nebius Just Exploded 34% on Blowout Earnings—Is It Time to Buy? Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
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First Nebraska Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 47,932 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock, valued at approximately $9,983,000. Amazon.com accounts for 0.9% of First Nebraska Trust Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Amazon.com by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 0.7% during the first quarter. Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,509 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Sfam LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Sfam LLC now owns 1,224 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. lifted its position in Amazon.com by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. now owns 1,206 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. boosted its stake in Amazon.com by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 1,633 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $376,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth AMZN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. DZ Bank upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. HSBC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. New Street Research raised their target price on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $360.00 price target (up from $355.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amazon.com has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $322.56.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Amazon.com
Insider Activity In other Amazon.com news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,467 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.40, for a total transaction of $4,074,007.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,729,480.60. The trade was a 52.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total transaction of $5,268,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,205,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $581,042,879.72. This represents a 0.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 62,650 shares of company stock worth $16,535,457. 8.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Amazon.com Price Performance NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $265.13 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $247.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $238.49. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.00 and a 52-week high of $287.20. The firm has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.33, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The company had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 17.44% and a return on equity of 18.00%. Amazon.com’s revenue was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
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.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Asian Market Circuit Breakers Hit Stocks, Not AI Demand Riot Platforms Re-Wires the Ledger for a $9B AI Power Play Nebius Just Exploded 34% on Blowout Earnings—Is It Time to Buy? Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal
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Concorde Asset Management LLC decreased its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 37.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 4,415 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 2,629 shares during the quarter. Concorde Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AMZN. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Amazon.com by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 73,085 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $15,221,000 after buying an additional 5,125 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.7% during the first quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 303,862 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $63,285,000 after acquiring an additional 5,104 shares during the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 216,606 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $49,997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,854 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,653,228 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,690,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,275,942 shares during the period. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Amazon.com by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 39,264 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $9,063,000 after acquiring an additional 4,713 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several analysts have weighed in on AMZN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $325.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price (up from $280.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.56.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on AMZN
Amazon.com Trading Down 0.8% Shares of NASDAQ AMZN opened at $265.13 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $247.57 and its 200-day moving average is $238.49. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a twelve month low of $196.00 and a twelve month high of $287.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The business had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 17.44% and a return on equity of 18.00%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.
Insider Transactions at Amazon.com In other Amazon.com news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total value of $5,268,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,205,766 shares in the company, valued at $581,042,879.72. This represents a 0.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.40, for a total transaction of $4,074,007.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,159 shares in the company, valued at $3,729,480.60. This trade represents a 52.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 62,650 shares of company stock valued at $16,535,457. Insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Company Profile (Free Report)
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.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Asian Market Circuit Breakers Hit Stocks, Not AI Demand Riot Platforms Re-Wires the Ledger for a $9B AI Power Play Nebius Just Exploded 34% on Blowout Earnings—Is It Time to Buy? Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
Receive News & Ratings for Amazon.com Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Amazon.com and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
Cozad Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 3.1% during the undefined quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 102,321 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after buying an additional 3,075 shares during the period. Amazon.com accounts for
Foguth Wealth Management LLC. grew its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) by 36.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,967 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,132 shares during the period. Foguth Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $1,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AMZN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth about $32,868,735,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its position in shares of Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,272,397,000 after buying an additional 98,090,585 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 20,598.0% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 87,982,814 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $20,308,193,000 after buying an additional 87,557,736 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com in the first quarter valued at approximately $11,674,091,000. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 879.4% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 27,862,400 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $6,431,199,000 after acquiring an additional 25,017,588 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $328.00 target price (up from $322.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group set a $318.00 price target on Amazon.com and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $322.56.
View Our Latest Analysis on Amazon.com
Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act Amazon.com Trading Down 0.8% NASDAQ AMZN opened at $265.13 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $247.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $238.49. Amazon.com, Inc. has a twelve month low of $196.00 and a twelve month high of $287.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.33, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com In other news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 15,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.40, for a total value of $4,074,007.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,729,480.60. This represents a 52.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total transaction of $5,268,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,205,766 shares in the company, valued at approximately $581,042,879.72. This represents a 0.90% 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 62,650 shares of company stock valued at $16,535,457. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
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.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Asian Market Circuit Breakers Hit Stocks, Not AI Demand Riot Platforms Re-Wires the Ledger for a $9B AI Power Play Nebius Just Exploded 34% on Blowout Earnings—Is It Time to Buy? Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal
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Allen Capital Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) by 8.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 52,359 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,261 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com accounts for 1.0% of Allen Capital Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Allen Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $10,905,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. MilWealth Group LLC raised its position in Amazon.com by 79.0% in the fourth quarter. MilWealth Group LLC now owns 179 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Amazon.com by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership now owns 200 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 95.6% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 221 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 87.7% during the 4th quarter. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. now owns 229 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Amazon.com Stock Performance NASDAQ AMZN opened at $265.13 on Friday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.00 and a 52-week high of $287.20. The company has a fifty day moving average of $247.57 and a 200-day moving average of $238.49. The company has a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.03.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The business had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Key Amazon.com News Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several analysts have issued reports on AMZN shares. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $328.00 target price (up from $322.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research upgraded Amazon.com from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $280.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective (up from $275.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.56.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on AMZN
Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com In other news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total value of $5,268,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,205,766 shares in the company, valued at approximately $581,042,879.72. This trade represents a 0.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total transaction of $620,003.94. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 119,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,427,876.40. The trade was a 1.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 62,650 shares of company stock valued at $16,535,457. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
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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Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC reduced its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 16.9% in the undefined quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,787 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 4,434 shares during the period. Amazon.com comprises about
Asset Dedication LLC decreased its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 19.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,337 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 8,784 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com comprises about
Axiom Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,814 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,211,000.
Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. MilWealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 79.0% in the fourth quarter. MilWealth Group LLC now owns 179 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth $45,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in Amazon.com by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership now owns 200 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Amazon.com by 95.6% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 221 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 87.7% during the 4th quarter. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. now owns 229 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Trending Headlines about Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Amazon is positioning Alexa as an AI-powered shopping assistant that can identify missing groceries from a refrigerator photo, create a shopping list and potentially direct purchases before customers visit competitors such as Walmart. The initiative could strengthen Amazon’s grocery and retail ecosystem. Amazon Wants Alexa to Own the Shopping List Before Walmart Ever Sees It Positive Sentiment: AWS remains a major bullish catalyst. Recent reports highlighted 36.7% year-over-year AWS growth, a roughly $496 billion backlog and substantial demand for AI infrastructure. Amazon has also made OpenAI cybersecurity models available through Amazon Bedrock, supporting cloud-service adoption. Amazon Stock Eyes AWS Growth as Amazon’s $220 Billion Spending Plan Expands Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains favorable, with one report citing a potential 32% upside and no sell ratings among 62 analysts. Investment activity also included Appaloosa nearly doubling its Amazon position earlier this year, signaling continued institutional confidence. Amazon’s Price Target Says Plus 32 Percent and Not a Single Analyst Says Sell Neutral Sentiment: Amazon is reportedly a leading bidder for Decart AI, which could add valuable AI talent and technology for AWS, retail operations and advertising. However, the financial terms and outcome remain uncertain. What Could Amazon Gain From Leading the Decart AI Bidding? Negative Sentiment: Twitch’s decision to enroll creators by default in sharing livestream content for Amazon AI training has triggered strong user backlash. The controversy could create reputational, regulatory and creator-retention risks. Amazon Will Train on Twitch Streamers’ Content by Default Unless They Opt Out Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s 2026 capital-expenditure forecast has risen to approximately $220 billion as it expands AI and cloud capacity. Investors are concerned that borrowing and heavy spending may reduce near-term free cash flow, particularly while Amazon does not pay a dividend. Amazon Raises 2026 AI Spending to 220 Billion Dollars Negative Sentiment: New York City labor activists and Teamsters are urging passage of legislation that could require delivery workers to be directly employed, potentially increasing Amazon’s labor costs and disrupting its last-mile delivery model. Amazon Teamsters and Allies Picket City Hall for the Delivery Protection Act Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of research analysts recently commented on AMZN shares. UBS Group set a $318.00 price target on Amazon.com and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Bank of America lifted their target price on Amazon.com from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. New Street Research upped their price target on Amazon.com from $280.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $320.00 price target (down from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $322.56.
Get Our Latest Research Report on AMZN
Amazon.com Stock Down 0.8% Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $265.13 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $247.57 and its 200-day moving average is $238.49. The company has a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1 year low of $196.00 and a 1 year high of $287.20.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The company had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a net margin of 17.44% and a return on equity of 18.00%. Amazon.com’s quarterly revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year.
Insider Buying and Selling In related news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.53, for a total value of $2,489,273.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,060,750.70. The trade was a 18.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,363 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.38, for a total value of $620,003.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 119,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,427,876.40. This represents a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 62,650 shares of company stock worth $16,535,457 over the last 90 days. 8.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
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.
Read More Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Asian Market Circuit Breakers Hit Stocks, Not AI Demand Riot Platforms Re-Wires the Ledger for a $9B AI Power Play Nebius Just Exploded 34% on Blowout Earnings—Is It Time to Buy? Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
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Fidelity Contrafund’s contrarian pitch runs into a $157.8 billion problem: the fund is so big that its bets against the crowd often are the crowd.
Fidelity Contrafund (NASDAQ:FCNTX) is an actively managed large-cap growth mutual fund whose 428 positions mix mega-cap tech, a few defensive value names, and a rare slate of private-market stakes. As of the fund’s March 31, 2026 NPORT filing, the top 10 holdings represent 45.66% of net assets, and the combined Meta, Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet stack alone accounts for 34.65% of the portfolio. That is broad-market leadership wearing an active manager’s badge.
Where the Real Money Sits Meta Platforms is Contrafund’s largest position at 10.29% of assets, followed by Nvidia at 9.42% and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) at 5.73%. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shows up in both share classes for a combined 6.30% weight, while Berkshire Hathaway’s A and B shares total 5.15%. Microsoft sits at 2.97%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at 2.34%, and Broadcom at 1.87%.
Those weights have worked, unevenly. Through August 13, 2026, Nvidia has returned 1,019.82% over five years, Alphabet 153.73%, Apple 109.89%, and Amazon 60.98%. Meta gained 65.24% over five years but has fallen 23.48% in the past year and 9.71% year to date. The S&P 500 via SPY returned 74.43% over five years and 14.06% year to date through the same date, giving investors a plain benchmark to measure the fund’s active tilt against.
Concentration Cuts Both Ways Meta’s Q2 2026 EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.22 consensus by 14.42%, and operating margin compressed from 43% to 31% YoY as capex jumped 82.1% YoY to $30.12 billion. Full-year 2026 capex guidance of $130 to $145 billion signals a sustained AI-infrastructure spend that FCNTX is effectively financing through its 10% position.
Nvidia is the offset. Q1 FY2027 revenue hit $81.615 billion (up 85.23% YoY), with Data Center revenue of $75.246 billion and non-GAAP gross margin of 75.0%. Management guided Q2 revenue to $91.0 billion, plus or minus 2%. Prediction and sentiment data show a composite sentiment score of 59.04 on Nvidia, described as neutral, suggesting the crowd is less euphoric than the fundamentals.
What's Actually Contrarian Here Beyond the mega-cap core, Contrafund owns positions most large-cap growth funds cannot access. Private-market stakes include SpaceX (roughly $5.8 billion combined, about 3.7% of the fund), OpenAI ($407.9 million), Anthropic ($209.2 million), plus Databricks, Stripe, Cerebras, and Anduril. Non-consensus public bets include Philip Morris International (0.797%), Valero Energy (0.339%), and a cluster of gold miners including Agnico Eagle, Barrick, and Wheaton Precious Metals.
Amphenol (NYSE:APH), a datacom and AI-networking supplier, has returned 51.97% over the past year and 370.04% over five years through August 13, 2026. Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) is up 55.43% year to date and 795.01% over five years. These second-derivative AI plays give the "Contra" label some substance.
Size Is the Silent Fee The available prospectus data does not disclose the current expense ratio, so investors should verify it on Fidelity’s fund page before buying. The bigger structural cost is asset base. At roughly $157.8 billion, any conviction position has to be enormous to move the needle, which pushes the portfolio toward names it can trade freely: mega-caps. That is the tax of running one of the largest actively managed equity mutual funds in the world.
Who This Fund Fits Retirement savers who already index the S&P 500 and want a growth-tilted active complement, with private-company exposure no ETF offers, may find Contrafund worth researching. Cost-focused investors, taxable-account holders sensitive to capital-gains distributions, and anyone seeking real diversification away from mega-cap tech have cheaper and cleaner options.
Funds to Research Next Fidelity Blue Chip Growth: Fidelity’s more aggressive large-cap growth sibling, with higher concentration in the same AI winners. Vanguard Growth Index (mutual fund or ETF twin): passive exposure to the same mega-cap growth stack for a fraction of the fee. Fidelity Contrafund K6: lower-fee share class of the same strategy, available inside many workplace retirement plans. Primecap Odyssey Growth: another large actively managed growth fund with a distinct contrarian bent and long-tenured team. Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
When you think of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, Amazon (AMZN -0.80%) may not be a name that jumps to the top of the list. However, with its cloud computing business delivering an incredible 37% year-over-year growth rate, I think it's a force to be reckoned with. While there may be companies that are growing faster than that, Amazon's growth rate is picking up, and it could stay hot for several years based on the company's massive investments in AI computing infrastructure.
This could lead to Amazon being one of the biggest winners in the next phase of the AI arms race, and if you don't own shares already, it isn't too late to buy.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Amazon Web Services is a top reason to own the stock Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon's cloud computing division. It's the No. 1 competitor by market share, with about 28% last quarter. In Q2, it accounted for 21% of the company's total revenue, but 60% of its operating profits. That's an incredible contribution from a small business unit, and with AWS growing rapidly, Amazon as a whole will benefit.
While the other two cloud computing titans -- Alphabet's Google Cloud (15% market share) and Microsoft Azure (20% market share) -- reported faster growth than AWS, what investors must understand is that AWS' growth rate is rapidly accelerating. In Q3 2025, AWS' growth rate was 20%. In Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, its year-over-year growth accelerated to 24% and 28%, respectively. In Q2, the growth rate jumped further to 37%, and it likely isn't done there.
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Amazon is spending the most of any AI hyperscaler on computing infrastructure this year, with capital expenditures expected to total around $220 billion. All of that spending will eventually convert into increased computing capacity, which will in turn lead to increased revenue. A larger revenue base will allow Amazon to invest even more in data center infrastructure, creating a growth flywheel that should send Amazon stock soaring, as long as there is demand for compute.
Fortunately for Amazon shareholders, it's pretty clear that there is.
During its Q2 conference call, CEO Andy Jassy noted that the company doesn't have enough capacity to meet all available demand in 2026, and that 2027 is also shaping up to be that way. As a result, there's already demand for capacity that it won't have online until 2028. Having that type of visibility into sales growth that's almost a year and a half out bulks up the Amazon investment thesis.
Amazon's growth rate will remain strong over the next few years, driven by its robust cloud services offerings. As a result, I think Amazon is one of the best AI stocks to buy now and hold for the long term.
Five companies command market values around $3 trillion or more: chipmaker Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon (AMZN -0.80%). Four of them pay quarterly dividends.
Amazon is the exception, and it always has been. The e-commerce and cloud computing giant has never paid a dividend, and it joined this group only recently, crossing the $3 trillion line for the first time on Aug. 3.
The reason has little to do with how much cash comes in the door. What's missing is anything left over once the company finishes spending.
Where does all of that cash go?
Image source: Amazon.
Four payers and a holdout Among the other four, dividends are settled business. Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia all pay them, and Alphabet, the group's newest payer, initiated its first-ever dividend in April 2024, alongside a $70 billion buyback authorization.
Amazon, by contrast, currently returns nothing to shareholders in any form. There's no dividend. And the company's one buyback program, a $10 billion authorization from March 2022, has sat idle -- no shares were repurchased in 2023, 2024, or 2025, and $6.1 billion of it was still available at the end of last year.
For income investors, that means there's nothing here, and there likely won't be for years to come.
The cash is spoken for The money Amazon isn't paying out is easy to find. Management expects about $220 billion of capital expenditures this year, most of it aimed at artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud capacity. That figure was $200 billion as recently as February, before rising memory prices pushed it higher. And it caps a steep climb. Amazon's net cash spending on property and equipment was about $48 billion in 2023, about $78 billion in 2024, and about $128 billion in 2025.
All of that spending now exceeds what Amazon's operations bring in. Operating cash flow rose 33% year over year to $161.4 billion over the trailing 12 months. Free cash flow (what remains after capital spending) swung to an outflow of $7.6 billion over the same stretch, compared with an inflow of $18.2 billion a year earlier. The swing came from purchases of property and equipment running $66.1 billion higher than the year before.
For perspective, Alphabet generated about $69 billion of free cash flow in 2023, the year before it started paying a dividend. Amazon produces far more cash from operations than Alphabet did then, and it still ends up below zero once the data centers are paid for. I'd argue those two numbers are the whole explanation.
Nor does management sound ready to slow down. CEO Andy Jassy told investors on the company's July 30 earnings call that even $220 billion won't buy enough capacity to meet this year's demand, and that he believes the same will be true in 2027.
Should shareholders mind? The case for the build-out is in what the spending is already producing. Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue rose 37% year over year to $42.2 billion in the second quarter -- growth that management said was its fastest in 18 quarters. And in the earnings release, Jassy said AWS is "booming," noting that the company's AI and chips businesses "each eclipsed run rates of more than $25 billion" annually.
The profits are following. Operating income climbed 43% year over year to $27.5 billion in the second quarter, with AWS contributing $16.6 billion of that. Net income more than tripled to $62.6 billion, though most of the jump came from a one-time source -- $53.4 billion of non-operating income, primarily gains tied to the company's Anthropic investments.
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Sure, the stock isn't obviously cheap. Shares trade around $276 as of this writing, about 4% off their record high.
Measured against the earnings analysts expect over the next 12 months, the price comes to about 30 times. The ratio on the past year's earnings looks cheaper, but only because those earnings include the windfall.
But a company growing revenue 20% at Amazon's size, with its most profitable segment accelerating, can grow into a price like that.
Ultimately, the missing dividend is a choice, and it's an easy one to understand. Amazon isn't withholding cash from shareholders out of stinginess. Instead, there is simply no free cash flow to spare after the build-out, and the company is betting that a dollar of AI capacity earns more than a dollar of payout ever could. As long as AWS keeps compounding at rates like the second quarter's, I think that bet is defensible.
Second-quarter earnings season is coming to a close, with just a handful of S&P 500 companies yet to report their results. And the verdict for the quarter is in: It was a spectacular three months for the 500 largest U.S.-listed companies (which represent about 80% of total U.S. market capitalization).
About 90% of these companies have published their quarterly results. Of those, 86% reported a positive earnings surprise, i.e., their reported earnings exceeded Wall Street's expectations. That's according to FactSet, which tracks S&P 500 results. Similarly, three-quarters of the companies that reported results had a positive revenue surprise.
As for comparisons with the second quarter of the previous year (2025), the year-over-year earnings growth rate is 50.4% so far. If that figure remains (after the final few companies report), it will be the highest growth rate for the S&P 500 since the second quarter of 2021.
As for revenue, the companies that have reported so far have grown revenue 15% year over year. And if that figure holds, it will mark the highest revenue growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2021.
Image source: Getty Images.
All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 showed year-over-year revenue growth, and five sectors reported double-digit growth. The leading sectors for revenue growth were energy, information technology, and communication services.
The energy sector reported the highest revenue growth
Companies in the energy sector reported revenue growth of 42.5%, primarily due to higher oil prices stemming from the war in the Persian Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The average price of oil during the second quarter, about $93 per barrel, was 45% higher than in the second quarter of last year.
Within the energy sector, oil and gas refining and marketing companies reported the best revenue growth, 53% over last year. Refiner stocks have surged this year due to a global shortage of refining capacity.
Two technology companies -- Alphabet (GOOGL +0.82%) (GOOG +0.46%) and Amazon (AMZN -0.80%) -- impacted earnings growth the most in the quarter. FactSet estimates that excluding results from those two companies reduces the earnings growth rate for the quarter from 50.4% to 32%.
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Alphabet reported earnings per share of $9.11, more than three times what Wall Street expected. Much of that unexpected gain was due to $98 billion in unrealized gains on equities, primarily the stock of Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -3.33%), which went public in the second quarter. Similarly, Amazon reported $53.4 billion in income from the revaluation of its investment in AI developer Anthropic.
Interestingly, second-quarter earnings growth was boosted by several companies' investments in other firms, rather than by ordinary operating income.
Still, even without those one-time gains, both earnings and revenue growth were strong among S&P 500 companies, a very good signal for stock prices going forward.
Livestream gaming giant Twitch has raised hackles among its millions of users after declaring it will share their data with its parent company, Amazon, to better train the online retailer's AI models.