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AWS, Physical Stores, & Other Key Q3 Amazon (AMZN) Estimates

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Shares of Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and other tech giants such as Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) slipped through late afternoon trading Tuesday as part of a larger selloff. Yet, Amazon’s third-quarter estimates appear strong. So, let’s see what to expect from some of Amazon's key business units when AMZN reports its Q3 financial results on Thursday, October 25.  

Q3 Outlook

Amazon has expanded its reach over the years to include everything from cloud computing to physical retail. Overall, Amazon’s third-quarter revenues are projected to jump by 30.4% to reach $57.06 billion, based on our current Zacks Consensus Estimate.

At the other end of the income statement, AMZN’s adjusted Q3 earnings are expected to soar roughly 533% to hit $3.29 per share. Historically, Amazon’s earnings projections don’t mean as much. Amazon, for instance, posted quarterly earnings of $5.07 per share last quarter, which crushed our estimate by $2.58 per share.

Plus, Amazon had reported earnings of $0.40 per share in the year-ago quarter. With that said, we need to look at what investors should expect from Amazon’s specific business units since they could drive AMZN’s post-earnings performance.

Luckily, we can turn to our exclusive non-financial metrics consensus estimate file to understand what to expect from Amazon’s individual segments. The Zacks Consensus NFM file contains detailed estimate data for business segment metrics and non-financial metrics reported by companies. The data is acquired from digest and contributing broker models and includes the independent research of expert stock market analysts.

 

Online Stores & Physical Retail

Amazon is still an online retailer at its core. The company is expected to see its online stores sales reach $29.208 billion, which would mark a roughly 10.7% jump from the $26.392 billion AMZN posted in the year-ago period. The company’s online store sales climbed 14% to reach $27.165 billion last quarter.

Meanwhile, Amazon reported physical stores sales of $4.312 billion last quarter, which accounted for about 8% of total Q2 revenues. This unit features Amazon Books, Whole Foods, and other newer offerings as Jeff Bezos’ firm dives deeper into brick-and-mortar.

Amazon physical stores sales are projected to soar from $1.276 billion to touch $4.163 billion in Q3.

AWS

Moving on, Amazon’s cloud computing business is always one that investors should pay close attention to. The Seattle-based company grabbed the top spot in terms of cloud market share at 34% last quarter, according to Synergy Research Group. This came in well-above second-place Microsoft’s 14%, IBM’s (IBM - Free Report) 8%, Google’s (GOOGL - Free Report) 6%, and Alibaba’s (BABA - Free Report) 4%.

The company’s AWS revenues are expected to soar 46% from $4.584 billion in the year-ago period to hit $6.697 billion. Last quarter, Amazon Web Services revenues climbed 49% to $6.105 billion.  

Subscription Services           

Investors should also know that Amazon’s subscription business surged 57% to reach $3.408 billion in Q2. This unit includes annual and monthly Amazon Prime membership fees, along with audiobook, e-book, digital video, digital music, and other non-AWS subscription services.

It is worth noting that Amazon Prime members get access to Amazon Prime video, which competes against Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) and will soon find itself fighting Disney (DIS - Free Report) , Apple (AAPL - Free Report) and AT&T (T - Free Report) . This key unit is expected to surge roughly 50% from $2.441 billion in the year-prior period to reach $3.661 billion in the third quarter.

Make sure to check back here for our full analysis of Amazon’s actual results after the firm reports its Q3 financial metrics after the market closes on Thursday.

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