Amazon Earnings Preview: "Strategy Road Map" raises concerns

Amazon.com

is set to report earnings this Thursday, April 24, and Wedbush Equity Research is expecting the technology giant to report revenues in line with above-consensus estimates. The firm is also maintaining its Neutral rating and has set its 12-Month Price Target at $330 per share. Wedbush cited this, “We expect Amazon to report Q1 revenue in line with our above-consensus estimates as it continues to gain share from brick-and-mortar retailers; EPS remains unpredictable as the company's spending soaks up gross profit dollar growth.” In March of 2014, Amazon announced a price increase in its Prime membership services raising the price from $79 to $99. Additionally, the giant announced the introduction of its Fire TV multimedia set-top box for video, music, and gaming, the product was announced earlier this month. The firm commented again, “We thought Fire TV's debut was underwhelming, and believe that Amazon missed an opportunity to introduce a highly-differentiated device. We believe that the primary use for Fire TV will be video streaming through Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Prime Instant Video, three applications that are already available on a slew of other consumer electronics devices, including Fire TV's primary competition. With similar application availability and pricing for Fire TV and its competition, we remain unconvinced that buyers will opt for Fire TV at the expense of Apple and Roku, particularly among non-Amazon customers, making Fire TV another entry in an already crowded space. Several news outlets have reported that an Amazon mobile phone will be launched soon.” Wedbush is maintaining its Neutral rating and its price target of $330 per share. The firm has cited Amazon not being ale to provide investors with a “strategy road map” as a reason regarding its price target. Shares of Amazon are up $5.63 or 1.73 percent to $330.54 per share.