Shares in Amazon.com Inc. AMZN.O were up 4.8% in a broad market rally on Thursday ahead of the quarterly report due out after market close, with investor focus on spending plans for artificial intelligence.
Wall Street sees the online retail and cloud computing giant reporting Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.82 vs. $1.68 a year ago on revenue of $196.47 billion, which would be up 17% from $167.71 billion in the year-ago quarter, according to LSEG data.
Estimates suggest Q2 would be AMZN's fastest year-over-year growth rate for revenue since Q2 2021.
Recent earnings pattern and AI spending concerns
In the last 8 quarters, AMZN's EPS beat the Street 6 times, with misses in Q4 2025 (~1.1%) and Q1 2026 (~1.7%); revenue met or beat expectations 7 times, with a miss in Q2 2024 (~0.4%).
Investors have become increasingly skeptical whether Big Tech's heavy spending on AI is justified. Q2 reactions were mixed so far, with Alphabet GOOGL.O and Meta META.O shares tumbling after their reports while Microsoft MSFT.O impressed.
Valuation, analyst ratings and expected share move
AMZN last traded at $237.42 vs. a median PT of $315, as per LSEG, which shows 69 analyst ratings: 19 'strong buy,' 46 'buy,' and 4 'hold'.
YTD shares in Amazon are up 2.9% vs. an 8.5% gain for Dow industrials .DJI, a decline of about 6% for Consumer Discretionary .SPLRCD, and about a 15.8% gain for the S&P 500 technology index .SPLRCT.
AMZN options are primed for a 6.9% swing for the shares, in either direction, by Friday; over the last eight quarters, on average, the shares moved 5.4% the day after results, according to Trade Alert.
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