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Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. The consensus estimates are calling for $5.57 in earnings per share (EPS) and $62.48 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $5.07 in EPS and $52.89 billion in revenue.

FedEx killed part of its deal to deliver goods for Amazon last week. Now, Amazon has returned the favor. It has announced it will buy more large Boeing jets for its own delivery service. As has been true in e-commerce, video streaming, consumer electronics and cloud computing, Amazon has taken a path to aggressively batter the competition.

Amazon workers in Minnesota and Germany went on strike or walked out of their jobs during Prime Day, the e-commerce company’s 48-hour event created to trigger a surge in its sales and to promote its Prime program. The strikes were based on complaints that Amazon pays workers too little and works them too hard. New research shows that the problems are deep enough that 39% of Amazon workers want a union to represent them as they fight for better conditions.

The e-commerce empire also announced a new collaboration with Realogy for the launch of TurnKey, a new homebuying program that simplifies the process of finding and settling into a new home.

Excluding Thursday’s move, Amazon has outperformed the broad markets, with the stock up about 33% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock is up only 11%.

A few analysts weighed in on Amazon prior to the release:

• Credit Suisse has an Outperform rating and a $2,250 price target.
• Wedbush has a Buy rating with a $2,350 price target.
• Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating with a $2,515 target price.
• KeyCorp has an Overweight rating and a $2,200 target price.
• Stifel has a Buy rating with a $2,300 price target.
• Loop Capital has a Buy rating with a $2,380 price target.
• Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a $2,300 target.

Shares of Amazon traded down about 0.5% on Thursday, at $1,987.65 in a 52-week range of $1,307.00 to $2,050.50. The consensus price target is $2,256.14.

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