Wall Street is looking forward to the closing bell today.
Amazon (AMZN), the ecommerce juggernaut whose stock has risen over 54% this year, is scheduled to report its Q2 earnings on Thursday after markets close. The company’s remarkable performance has boosted market capitalization from under $600 billion at the start of the year to almost $900 billion today, leading investors to believe that Amazon may beat Apple in becoming the first company to reach a $1 trillion market cap.
Analysts are expecting Q2 profit for Amazon of $2.50 per share, roughly $1.2 billion, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate, significantly higher than the $0.40 per share reported during the same period last year. The same consensus expects $53.41 billion in revenue, compared to $37.96 billion last year.
Jeff Bezos has led a relentless campaign this year in expanding Amazon’s empire. In June, Amazon secured a deal to acquire PillPack, an online pharmacy that packages and delivers drugs, for just under $1 billion, a move that could disrupt the U.S. drugstore business. Last year, Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.
In the second quarter, the ecommerce giant launched Prime member savings in all Whole Foods stores nationwide, while simultaneously expanding Whole Foods delivery networks in more cities, including San Antonio, Houston, and Chicago.
Earlier this month, Amazon held its annual Prime Day shopping event, its biggest shopping event yet, during which shoppers purchased more than 100 million products. Analysts estimate that Amazon made at least $3.6 billion in sales during the 36-hour-long event. Sales from the Prime Day event will not be disclosed until the company’s third-quarter report.
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Amazon has also invested heavily in expanding its cloud business (Amazon Web Services) and advertising business (Amazon Marketing Services), which are two of the fastest growing and most profitable units of the company. Advertising is expected to reach $9 billion in annualized revenue this quarter, according to KeyBanc estimates.
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