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Amazon (AMZN) is scheduled to report results for its third quarter of 2025 after the market close on Thursday, October 30, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. Here's what to watch for:

EXPECTATIONS: During the company's last earnings call, Amazon said it saw Q3 revenue of $174B-$179.5B, with consensus at the time of $173.2B. "This guidance anticipates a favorable impact of approximately 130 basis points from foreign exchange rates. Operating income is expected to be between $15.5B and $20.5B, compared with $17.4B in the third quarter 2024. This guidance assumes, among other things, that no additional business acquisitions, restructurings, or legal settlements are concluded," the company added.

Current consensus EPS and revenue forecasts for Amazon's third quarter stand at $1.56 and $177.76B, respectively, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The consensus EPS and revenue forecasts for Amazon's full year 2025 stand at $6.65 and $708.84B, respectively.

BULLISH ON AMAZON: Last week, KeyBanc resumed coverage of Amazon.com with an Overweight rating and $300 price target. Advertising is fueling gains in the company's retail business, which provides a path forward for grocery becoming more material over the medium term, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Investors have also become too pessimistic on the Cloud business, and the firm sees potential for improving growth into 2026, KeyCorp added.

AWS GROWTH RATE: UBS raised the firm's price target on Amazon.com to $279 from $271, while keeping a Buy rating on the shares ahead of the Q3 earnings report on October 30. The firm expects some "noise" in the Q3 reported operating income, and its headline guidance for OI may be below consensus. That said, UBS believes focus will likely be on the reported AWS growth rate, and expectations are at 18% year over year with prospects for potentially greater acceleration shifting into Q4 2025 and 2026.

Stifel also raised the firm's price target on Buy-rated Amazon.com to $269 from $260 as part of a broader research note previewing Q3 results in e-commerce. The management's commentary in Q2 that average sales prices had not risen materially remained the case in Q3, leaving the firm's estimates unchanged based on perceived stability in consumer spend, and the expansion of Same-Day grocery delivery for Prime members may leave some upside for 2026, the firm tells investors in a research note.

INCREMENTALLY BULLISH: Wells Fargo is incrementally bullish on Amazon following g update that Project Rainier is now live and doubling scale by year-end 2025. Estimate Project Rainier now contributes $8.2B vs $6.7B prior to 2026 AWS revenue, incremental 70bps year-over-year growth. Wells reiterates an Overweight rating on Amazon.

WORKFORCE: Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said in a memo to employees, "I want to let you know that we're making organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates. There will be communications from leaders to those teams and individuals today, but we also wanted to share the broader context about what's happening and why. Last year, Andy posted a note about strengthening our culture and teams - explaining how we want to operate like the world's largest startup, the importance of having the right structure to drive that level of speed and ownership, and the need to be set up to invent, collaborate, be connected, and deliver the absolute best for customers. Many of you have put significant effort into that work of strengthening your organizations by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and helping reduce bureaucracy. We're already seeing the results, with teams moving faster and many Amazonians feeling more ownership, and the S-team and I appreciate all the work you've done. The reductions we're sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we're investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers' current and future needs. While this will include reducing in some areas and hiring in others, it will mean an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles. We're working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted, including offering most employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (the timing will vary some based on local laws), and our recruiting teams will prioritize internal candidates to help as many people as possible find new roles within Amazon. For our teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, we'll offer them transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits, and more."

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