Markets
April 24, 2026
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Amazon Q1 earnings preview has markets on edge this week. The company reports its first-quarter 2026 results on April 29 after the US close, with a conference call at 2:30 p.m. PT, as Amazon News reveals. Amazon guided Q1 revenue at $173.5 to $178.5 billion, up roughly 11 to 15% year-over-year, and operating income of $16.5 to $21.5 billion, below the Street’s $22.2 billion consensus.
Analysts also pencil in EPS of around $1.63. Right now, AWS AI growth and the advertising unit sit at the center of every preview. AMZN stock hit a fresh 52-week high of $264.31 on April 26, driven by a multi-billion-dollar Meta-AWS Graviton chip deal and a round of bullish analyst upgrades.
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AWS AI Growth, AMZN Stock Today Outlook and Earnings Pressure
Why AWS Drives the Whole Amazon Q1 Earnings Preview
The bull case for this Amazon Q1 earnings preview starts and ends with AWS. The cloud unit posted $35.6 billion in Q4 2024 revenue, up 24% and the fastest clip in 13 quarters, and it carries a $244 billion order backlog that grew 40% year-over-year. AWS AI revenue crossed $15 billion annually, and Amazon’s custom chip business now runs at a $20 billion rate. Goldman Sachs puts AWS growth at around 26% year-over-year for Q1, though KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson sees things quite differently on the Amazon stock forecast side. He set a $325 price target and had this to say:
“We believe AWS [Amazon Web Services] is benefiting from a combination of capacity gains, AI diffusion, and client expansion. Anthropic has been a long-standing AWS customer, and its rapid growth in annual recurring revenue (from $9 billion in December 2025 to $30 billion in early April 2026) provides a meaningful tailwind to AWS growth (we assume AWS is about 60% of Anthropic spend). Increasing adoption of AI increases the likelihood of 30% year over year AWS growth in the first quarter, with further acceleration likely in 2026.”
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Cost Pressures That Could Complicate the Amazon Stock Forecast
This Amazon Q1 earnings preview also arrives with a real cost story. Full-year 2026 capex estimates nearly quadrupled to around $200 billion, and the Q1 AWS margin consensus also slipped to 35.7% from 37.7% back in October. Estimates on that margin run anywhere from 30.9% to 40%, which tells you how much genuine uncertainty the Street prices in right now. A seller ad boycott by hundreds of large marketplace vendors in mid-April adds another wrinkle. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, though, keeps his focus squarely on the AI demand picture. He stated:
“We are seeing no cracks in AI demand on the chips/hardware or software front which gives us a bright green light to own the core tech winners heading into 1Q earnings season. Chips have already surpassed $20B in revenue (greater than triple-digit year over year growth) through AWS, implying there could be one more growth lever to pull.”
What the AMZN Stock Reaction Could Look Like on April 29
UBS analyst Stephen Ju raised his price target to $304 and expects 38% AWS growth for full-year 2026, well above the Street’s 26% call. His Amazon stock forecast diverges from peers more than any other analyst right now, and the thesis hinges entirely on AI workload acceleration. Morgan Stanley also kept its Overweight rating, calling AWS an acceleration story for AI migrations.
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As Quiver Quantitative reveals, CEO Andy Jassy sold 70,744 shares worth an estimated $16.3 million over the past six months, also with zero purchases across all executives. Forward guidance on margins and AWS AI growth will likely set the tone for AMZN stock after April 29. The Amazon Q1 earnings preview lands the same week as Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet, making it one of the most consequential days of the earnings season. Implied volatility signals swings of more than 8% in either direction.
