NEW YORK, July 13, 2026, 15:08 EDT
Amazon.com Inc NASDAQ:AMZN was up 1.5% at $249.04 in Monday afternoon trading. Still, three recent fund-buying alerts actually point to a narrower and older signal than their posted dates.
All the positions were measured as of March 31. USS Investment Management accounted for 542,626 out of the 552,514 shares the three managers added, or 98.2%. Sound Income Strategies and Waterway Wealth Management together picked up only 9,888 shares.
The focus has shifted as Morgan Stanley NYSE:MS analyst Brian Nowak on Monday lifted his capex estimate for Amazon, now calling for $308 billion in 2027 and $318 billion in 2028, versus an expected $218 billion this year. That’s a 46% jump over two years. Capex, or capital expenditure, is money the company uses on long-term assets like servers or data centers.
Alerts showed up 73 to 78 days after the filings. Waterway filed on April 21, USS on April 24, and Sound on April 27, each for holdings as of March 31. A Form 13F is a quarterly U.S. holdings report, not a real-time trade notice.
The SEC information tables list the final positions and values as filed.
| Manager | Alert date | SEC filing | Lag | March 31 shares | Shares added | Filing value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound Income Strategies | July 13 | April 27 | 77 days | 62,901 | 3,134 | $13.245 million |
| USS Investment Management | July 11 | April 24 | 78 days | 3,196,522 | 542,626 | $665.756 million |
| Waterway Wealth Management | July 3 | April 21 | 73 days | 30,194 | 6,754 | $6.289 million |
| Combined | — | — | — | 3,289,617 | 552,514 | $685.289 million |
Based on Monday’s close, the combined stake would come to around $819.25 million if managers held steady since quarter-end. That’s about $134 million, or 19.5%, over the numbers reported in the filings. This is a mark-to-market gain, not an indication of actual profit or new institutional buying.
Amazon’s latest operating numbers are shifting investor focus toward cash conversion, not last year’s ownership disclosures. AWS sales rose 28% in the quarter and operating income was up 23%. But free cash flow for the trailing 12 months fell 95% to $1.23 billion as spending on property and equipment jumped 67%.
| Amazon operating measure | Latest reported amount | Year-on-year change |
|---|---|---|
| AWS quarterly sales | $37.6 billion | up 28% |
| AWS quarterly operating income | $14.2 billion | up 23% |
| Trailing property and equipment purchases | $147.3 billion | jumped 67% |
| Trailing free cash flow | $1.23 billion | down 95% |
Amazon tapped the debt markets last week for $25 billion in eight bond tranches. Orders topped out at $62 billion. The company said the funds might go to future capex or to repay maturing debt. The borrowing push is also happening at Alphabet Inc NASDAQ:GOOGL, Microsoft Corp NASDAQ:MSFT, and Meta Platforms Inc NASDAQ:META. Big Tech is lined up to spend more than $700 billion on AI this year.
Wall Street can’t agree on the payback speed for Amazon’s spending. Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan Chase & Co NYSE:JPM said the $200 billion 2026 capex plan had “shock value,” but said the rise in AWS and AI spending was “actually a good thing.” Nowak’s group said “strong AWS growth justifies the spend.” Wedbush’s Dan Ives said Amazon is in “prove-it mode” and investors want more real results. Sherwood News
But there are a couple of weak spots in the bullish view. Managers might have cut or exited their bets since March 31, and these filings don’t catch that. Amazon could be able to ramp up computing power faster than customers can actually use it, with rising memory, chip and labor costs pushing out payback. Morgan Stanley’s latest update pointed to supply snarls and higher component costs as drivers of the forecast increases.
The three alerts mostly give a read on first-quarter portfolio moves, not on actual buying now, until Q2 filings or managers speak up. For Amazon holders, the real question is if AWS growth can beat a yearly capital budget that’s moving past $300 billion.
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