Erste Group Bank Forecasts Lower Earnings for Amazon.com

Key Points

• Erste Group Bank trimmed its FY2026 EPS forecast for Amazon to $7.74 (from $7.76), a modest cut that remains slightly above the consensus estimate of $7.71.
• Amazon delivered a strong Q1 beat—EPS $2.78 vs. $1.62 and revenue $181.5B—with AWS reaccelerating (~28% cloud growth) and upbeat guidance, triggering broker upgrades and higher price targets.
• Despite the upside, near‑term risks include heavy AI capex and rising chip/memory costs, potential EU regulatory constraints, and notable insider selling that could pressure the stock.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN - Free Report) - Research analysts at Erste Group Bank dropped their FY2026 EPS estimates for shares of Amazon.com in a research report issued on Monday, April 27th. Erste Group Bank analyst S. Lingnau now expects that the e-commerce giant will earn $7.74 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $7.76. The consensus estimate for Amazon.com's current full-year earnings is $7.71 per share.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce giant reported $2.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $1.16. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.83% and a return on equity of 21.87%. The company had revenue of $181.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $176.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.59 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Argus reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $275.00 target price (down from $300.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Amazon.com to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-five have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $291.80.

Amazon.com Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $263.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Amazon.com has a 1 year low of $178.85 and a 1 year high of $265.91. The firm's 50-day moving average is $222.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $227.08. The stock has a market cap of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.69, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com

In other Amazon.com news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 17,751 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.22, for a total transaction of $3,642,860.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,405 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,930,094.10. This represents a 65.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 20,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $5,022,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 499,861 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $122,465,945. The trade was a 3.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 128,035 shares of company stock valued at $28,827,479. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,868,735,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its stake in Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $2,272,397,000 after purchasing an additional 98,090,585 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in Amazon.com by 20,598.0% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 87,982,814 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $20,308,193,000 after purchasing an additional 87,557,736 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Amazon.com during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $11,674,091,000. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its stake in Amazon.com by 879.4% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 27,862,400 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock valued at $6,431,199,000 after purchasing an additional 25,017,588 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company's stock.

More Amazon.com News

Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results surprised to the upside: revenue ~$181.5B and EPS well above consensus; AWS reaccelerated (roughly +28% cloud growth) and management gave a strong revenue guide for the next quarter — a classic catalyst for multiple expansion. Amazon.com Announces First Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI models are now coming to AWS Bedrock and Amazon rolled out several agentic/AI offerings (Amazon Quick, expanded Connect, Rufus/agentic commerce). Those moves materially strengthen AWS’s addressable market for high‑margin AI infrastructure and enterprise software. OpenAI expands Amazon deal after Microsoft loosens exclusivity terms
• Positive Sentiment: Amazon disclosed big commercial commitments around its custom AI chips (Trainium/Graviton) and reported a material backlog of commitments that underpins future AWS margin upside and potential chip‑sales revenue. Amazon the chip company? Tech giant says it may sell AI chips as a product
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokerages raised price targets and reiterated Buy ratings after the print (several targets moved into the $300–$325 range), supporting upward analyst momentum. Amazon Price Target Raised to $320
• Neutral Sentiment: Amazon emphasized faster delivery and higher customer engagement (management highlighted ~1 billion same‑day/ultrafast orders), which supports retail growth but requires continued logistics investment. 1 Billion Same-Day Orders: Amazon's Delivery Strategy: Earnings Call
• Neutral Sentiment: Large institutional deals (e.g., Meta Graviton core deployment) validate scale for AWS but also concentrate revenue on a few hyperscaler wins — positive for revenue, neutral for diversification. Amazon (AMZN) Secures Major AWS Deal With Meta
• Negative Sentiment: Management signaled heavy AI capex and rising chip/memory prices that could pressure near‑term free cash flow and capex guidance — investors may sell into the print if operating‑income or margin outlooks look conservative. Andy Jassy on chip prices pressuring capex
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: EU signaled plans to target cloud/AI under new Big Tech rules — potential compliance costs and product restrictions in Europe are a real medium‑term headwind. EU rules reining in Big Tech will now target cloud services and AI
• Negative Sentiment: Routine insider selling (director 10b5‑1 sale disclosed) and notes of retail‑investor caution mean positioning is crowded — raises chance of a post‑earnings unwind despite the beat. Director Jonathan Rubinstein SEC filing

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.

Key businesses and offerings include Amazon's online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.

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