Amazon set to report first-quarter earnings after the bell

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during a keynote address at AWS re:Invent 2024, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 3, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Noah Berger | Amazon is scheduled to report first-quarter results after the market close on Wednesday. Here's what Wall Street is expecting, according to estimates compiled by LSEG: Earnings per share: $1.64 Revenue: $177.3 billion Wall Street is also looking at other key revenue numbers: Amazon Web Services: $36.92 billion expected, according to StreetAccount Advertising: $16.87 billion expected, according to StreetAccount Revenue is projected to increase 14% in the first quarter, an acceleration from a year earlier, when sales grew 8.6% to $155.7 billion, and roughly in line with last quarter's 13.6% growth. Investors will be closely watching Amazon's cloud business, where revenue is expected to jump roughly 26% from a year ago. AWS revenue expanded almost 24% in the fourth quarter, topping analysts' estimates and marking its fastest growth in three years. Amazon and other big tech companies have been trying to justify their hefty artificial intelligence spending, which could approach $700 billion in 2026. Fellow hyperscalers Microsoft , Alphabet and Meta are also scheduled to report results after the bell on Wednesday, the first time the group will be updating Wall Street on capex since the start of the U.S.-Iran war in February. …