Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon's relentless effort to get orders to your doorstep more quickly is likely to drag down profit numbers when the company reports fourth-quarter results on Thursday afternoon. But revenue growth keeps chugging along. In its last earnings report in October, Amazon said it would spend $1.5 billion over the holiday period to expand its one-day delivery program and make it the standard for Prime subscribers, on top of the $800 million it invested in each of the prior two quarters. The company is expected to post a drop in fourth-quarter profit to $4.03 per share from $6.04 per share a year earlier, according to Refinitiv estimates. At the same time, analysts expect Amazon to report sales growth of 19% to $86 billion from $72.4 billion, keeping in line with recent expansion rates. Revenue has climbed 17% to 24% in each of the past four quarters. Rising costs have weighed on Amazon's share price of late. The stock is only up 17% in the past 12 months, trailing the 24% gain for the S&P 500 and lagging way behind the other four mega-cap tech companies — Apple (110%), Microsoft (63%), Facebook (55%) and Alphabet (36%) — as of Wednesday's close.

Amazon trails the S&P 500 over the past year CNBC

Amazon issued disappointing revenue guidance in its third-quarter results, setting the stage for a potentially underwhelming holiday shopping season. However, the company put those concerns to rest last month when it claimed customers shopped at "record" levels. Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a report that Amazon's aggressive push into one-day delivery probably provided a "nice boost to (near) last-minute purchases ahead of Christmas." He recommended buying the stock. Benchmark's Daniel Kurnos, who also has a buy rating on Amazon, echoed that sentiment in a note to clients. "We expect another record revenue holiday quarter, which could eclipse the high end of guidance thanks to share gains from the impressive, aggressive, one-day shipping rollout," Kurnos wrote. He added that operating income may miss estimates, "as, let's face it, one-day delivery is expensive." Other key topics in Thursday's earnings release and subsequent call with analysts will be growth at Amazon Web Services, the company's ad business, the increasing threat of antitrust action, and stats on Alexa-powered devices.

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