Analyst Expects Amazon Q4 Results to Reveal 'Strong Holiday Demand,' Whole Foods Lift

Wedbush Securities predicted for Amazon an “upside driven by very strong holiday demand,” a full quarter of Whole Foods contribution and continued growth in third-party seller services, subscriptions and Amazon Web Services. In a Monday research note before Thursday's Q4 earnings release, the analysis modeled Amazon’s Q4 revenue at $59.27 billion vs. consensus of $59.83 billion and Amazon’s guidance of $56 billion-$60.5 billion. Wedbush expects Amazon’s spending on content for streaming services to grow from an estimated $4.5 billion in 2017 to $6 billion this year, “implying operating margin contraction,” said analyst Michael Pachter.