AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Laura Stevens 

Amazon.com Inc. is scheduled to announce its first-quarter earnings after the market closes on Thursday. Here's what you need to know:

EARNINGS FORECAST: Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters on average expect Amazon to earn $1.26 a share, compared with $1.48 cents a share a year ago. The company forecast an operating income range between $300 million and $1 billion, compared with $1 billion a year ago.

REVENUE FORECAST: Analysts on average project quarterly revenue of $49.78 billion, compared with $35.71 billion a year ago. Amazon said it expects sales of between $47.75 billion and $50.75 billion for the quarter, which includes growth from its acquisition of grocery-store chain Whole Foods.

WHAT TO WATCH:

-- MARGIN PRESSURE: Some analysts predict Amazon may back away from its recent fiscal discipline this quarter as the company continues to invest heavily in everything from more warehouses to devices. Plus, the company rapidly added Prime Now grocery delivery to its Whole Foods stores in the quarter -- expanded to a total of 10 markets as of this week. Those costs and others could prevent a repeat of the company's blowout profits in the fourth quarter, when the company for the first time earned more than $1 billion.

-- WHOLE FOODS: Analysts will be looking for an update on how the companies' integration is progressing. Amazon has made some initial changes, including dropping prices on some items, adding in-store lockers and promising Prime member benefits. But it is unclear exactly how the two companies are meshing, and a string of Whole Foods executives have departed in recent months. Executives may provide further clarity on the call.

-- CORE E-COMMERCE: Analysts expect strong performance in the company's core retail business due to overall sales growth in U.S. e-commerce during the quarter. SunTrust analysts said more than half the units sold on Amazon last year came from outside sellers for the first time, a trend that they expect will continue this year and that will hurt revenue growth but help gross profit.

-- REGULATION: Amazon and its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, have increasingly come under fire from President Trump in recent weeks. A string of tweets accusing the company of avoiding sales taxes and causing losses for the U.S. Postal Service was met by silence from the company as stock prices plunged, although they have since recovered. The first-quarter conference call could be a time to address some of those issues.

Write to Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2018 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.