Amazon Sees Mixed Institutional Activity and Bullish Analyst Targets
DMC Group LLC reduced its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 21.8% during the second quarter, according to its latest 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor sold 2,883 shares, leaving it with 10,331 shares valued at $2,462,000. Amazon now represents about 1.7% of DMC Group's investment portfolio, making it the 13th largest holding.
Other institutional investors have made significant adjustments to their Amazon holdings. Auto Owners Insurance Co dramatically increased its stake by 27,376.7% in the fourth quarter, now owning 98,448,885 shares worth $2,272,397,000. Bank of America Corp DE and Bank of New York Mellon Corp also acquired new stakes valued at $22,218,775,000 and $16,341,405,000, respectively. Amundi and Invesco Ltd. boosted their holdings by 14.1% and 3.3%, respectively, in recent quarters. Collectively, institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of Amazon's stock.
Analysts have recently updated their price targets for Amazon. Truist Financial raised its target to $350.00 with a 'buy' rating, while Bank of America increased its target to $320.00. Benchmark set a new high target of $400.00, and Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an 'overweight' rating. With 56 'buy' ratings and 3 'hold' ratings, Amazon has an average consensus target price of $321.63.
Positive sentiment surrounds Amazon's AI and cloud investments. The company signed a $1 billion-plus deal with Synopsys for custom chips, expanded AWS's AI capabilities, and is investing in data-center power and community support. However, concerns include potential AI infrastructure spending burdens and insider stock sales, such as CEO Douglas Herrington's sale of 1,000 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan.