Amazon CEO Sells $251,500 in Company Shares

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Douglas Herrington sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock on Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.50, totaling $251,500. This transaction reduced Herrington’s ownership by 0.21%, leaving him with 474,681 shares valued at approximately $119.4 million. The sale was part of a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, as disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

On Monday, Amazon’s stock traded down $0.12, closing at $251.40. The company’s shares have a 52-week range of $196.00 to $287.20, with a market capitalization of $2.71 trillion. Amazon reported strong earnings for the quarter ending July 30th, with $5.75 earnings per share, surpassing estimates of $1.82. Revenue for the quarter was $200.61 billion, up 19.6% year-over-year.

Analysts have mixed views on Amazon’s stock. UBS Group set a $200.00 target price, while Roth Capital and Mizuho gave higher target prices of $325.00 and $330.00, respectively. The stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” with an average target price of $321.63. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the stock, with several hedge funds increasing their stakes in the second quarter.

Recent developments include Amazon’s exploration of selling $8 billion worth of Nvidia chips to outside investors, a move aimed at improving capital flexibility. The company also hired Pedram Rezaei, former Microsoft Copilot technology chief, to strengthen its AI initiatives. These steps highlight Amazon’s ongoing investments in AI and cloud infrastructure, despite concerns about the high costs associated with such spending.