Amazon.com Q1 Earnings Preview: All Eyes On E-Commerce Trends, AI As Tariff Anxiety Grows

E-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc AMZN could shed some light on how growing anxiety over tariffs is affecting consumption trends and the broader economic environment, when it reports first-quarter financial results after market close Thursday.

Here are the analyst earnings estimates, what experts are saying ahead of the report and key items to watch.

Earnings Estimates: Analysts estimate the e-commerce behemoth will report first-quarter revenue of $155.01 billion, up from $143.31 billion in the year-earlier period, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

The company has beaten analyst estimates for revenue in two straight quarters and eight of the last 10 quarters overall.

Analysts expect Amazon to report first-quarter earnings per share of $1.36, up from 98 cents per share a year earlier. The company has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in nine straight quarters.

Previous guidance from the company calls for first-quarter net sales to be in a range of $151 billion to $155.5 billion.

What Experts Are Saying: Freedom Capital Markets Chief Global Strategist Jay Woods said AI monetization and consumer spending habits are set to be key aspects in Amazon's earnings report.

"Investors are also focused on their e-commerce and consumer trends to get a better gauge to see if new spending habits are impacting the bottom line as expectations of tariffs grow," Woods said in a weekly newsletter.

With Amazon shares down by more than 20% from its late-January highs, WestPark Capital analyst Curtis Shauger highlighted a buying opportunity for the stock.

Shauger initiated Amazon with a Buy rating and $280 price target. The analyst highlighted the company's e-commerce dominance and Amazon Web Services being a top player in the infrastructure-as-a-service market.

The analyst estimates that AWS is about twice the size of Microsoft's Azure and around three times the size of Alphabet's Google Cloud Platform.

Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein recently maintained an Outperform rating on Amazon while lowering the price target from $260 to $220.

The analyst lowered Amazon estimates due to the overall economic uncertainty fueled by the Trump administration’s tariffs. Helfstein said sellers may have to pass the higher tariff costs onto consumers in the future.

Key Items to Watch: Tariffs will be the biggest topic on the minds of investors and analysts. The question will be how much color Amazon will provide, given a report the company was preparing to show the impact of tariffs directly to consumers did not go over well with the White House.

Amazon could be cautious in its language about tariffs, given the company's founder Jeff Bezos reportedly received a phone call from President Donald Trump earlier this week.

Outside of tariffs, AI and cloud will likely be the next biggest topics, with the company’s AWS segment and any commentary on new contracts and company demand potential positives.

The geographical split of revenue growth could be a key item to watch. In the fourth quarter, North American net sales were up 10% year-over-year, outperforming the 8% year-over-year growth of the International segment.

AWS led all three segments with 19% year-over-year growth.

The latest quarterly result won't have several of the catalysts that were part of the fourth-quarter result including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but could see results from "Thursday Night Football" and NFL coverage, which was highlighted in the last report.

Amazon streamed an NFL playoff game in January, which set a new Amazon NFL streaming record. Analysts and investors will be looking for more commentary on Prime Video subscribers, advertising revenue and more.

Another item to watch could be any update on Amazon's new Trainium 2 AI chip. The chip was mentioned in the last earnings report, but there has not been many updates since that time.

AMZN Price Action: Amazon stock was down 1.6% to $184.42 on Wednesday versus a 52-week trading range of $151.61 to $242.52. Amazon stock is down 16.3% year-to-date in 2025 and shares are up around 5% over the last year.

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