Billionaire Investor Retreats From Retail, Exits Alibaba Entirely, Cuts Amazon Stake 10%

Activist investor Dan Loeb‘s Third Point LLC pared back its exposure to the broadline retail sector in the first quarter of 2026, cutting its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 10% and fully exiting its position in Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA).

According to the firm’s Q1 13F filing, reflecting its holdings as of March 31, 2026, Third Point trimmed its Amazon holding to 1.94 million shares from 2.17 million, a reduction of 225,000 shares, while selling its entire Alibaba stake of 825,000 shares.

AMZN: Recent Key Events

• Amazon is looking to raise at least $25 billion from a U.S. dollar bond sale on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The funding push comes as the company accelerates investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
• The company expects to roll out initial internet service with its Leo broadband satellite network later this year after its latest launch pushed the constellation’s satellite count above 390.
• The cloud computing unit of Amazon has declared a $1 billion investment in a novel Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) unit.
• Australia’s competition watchdog has sued Amazon, alleging the e-commerce giant used unfair subscription terms to force more than one million annual Prime members to either watch advertisements on Prime Video or pay extra to remove them.
• Amazon will invest $48 billion in India through 2030, including an additional $13 billion to expand AI and cloud infrastructure after CEO Andy Jassy met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
• The company took on $17.5 billion in new debt to fund its AI build-out, a striking move for a company that long ran on cash flow rather than borrowing.
• Amazon detailed a more than 10 billion euros plan to expand and modernize European fulfillment centers, including new robotics like the next-generation Proteus robot (with Europe deployment planned for the first half of 2027) and a broader rollout of systems like Vulcan and STARK.

Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price target of $320.55. Recent analyst moves include:

Recent analyst moves include:

• TD Cowen: Buy (Lowers Target to $340.00) (July 8)
• Wells Fargo: Overweight (Raises Target to $313.00) (July 2)
• Truist Securities: Buy (Raises Target to $320.00) (May 29)

How Does Amazon Perform Against Its Peers?

This peer comparison is based on a curated set of stocks selected for this analysis: Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA), PDD Holdings Inc. (PDD), Mercado Libre, Inc (MELI), Sea Limited (SE), and eBay Inc (EBAY). Over the past year, Amazon.Com gained 10.09%, beating the peer-group average return of -1.34% by 11.43 percentage points. Amazon.Com finished ahead of or tied with four of the five peers, but it trailed eBay Inc (EBAY), which returned 51.01%.

Within the group, eBay Inc was the strongest performer at +51.01%, while Sea Limited was the weakest at -23.26%. The remaining peers were mixed, with Mercado Libre, Inc down 21.76%, PDD Holdings Inc. down 18.39%, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited up 5.70%.

AMZN’s Weight in Key ETFs and Their Impact

• Invesco Nasdaq Internet ETF (NASDAQ:PNQI): 9.89% Weight
• ClearBridge Large Cap Growth ESG ETF (NASDAQ:LRGE): 9.29% Weight
• Franklin Focused Growth ETF (NASDAQ:FFOG): 9.94% Weight

Significance: Because AMZN carries such a heavy weight in these funds, any significant inflows or outflows for these ETFs will likely force automatic buying or selling of the stock.

Current Price Action for AMZN Stock

AMZN Stock Price Activity: Amazon.com shares were down 0.65% at $245.42 at the time of publication on Friday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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