Buy the Mag 7 Laggards as Earnings Approach?: AMZN, AAPL

With most of the quarterly results from the Mag 7 set to roll in this week, the pressure on the group is tilting toward Amazon AMZN and Apple AAPL.  

Set to release their quarterly reports after-market hours on Thursday, October 30, Amazon and Apple have been the laggards of the Mag 7 stocks this year.

Along with Tesla TSLA, Amazon and Apple stock have trailed the broader indexes' YTD returns, with the rest of the group outperforming, led by Nvidia’s NVDA gains of more than +40%.

The appetite for loftier gains from Amazon and Apple stock is certainly setting in amid hopes that AI can give these tech giants another boost.  

What Wall Street will be Looking For

Amazon’s Cloud Services & Retail Performance

Outside of enhancing its retail performance, analysts will be anticipating updates on how Amazon’s AI investments are translating into cloud growth and profitability. As the largest global cloud provider ahead of Microsoft’s MSFT Azure and Alphabet’s GOOGL Google Cloud, Amazon’s AWS revenue is thought to have increased 17% during Q3 to more than $30 billion.

Notably, AWS has been Amazon’s most profitable business segment, with cloud computing and cloud infrastructure services now accounting for nearly 20% of the e-commerce giant’s top line. Overall, Amazon’s Q3 sales are expected to spike 12% to $177.88 billion, with Q3 earnings expected to rise 10% to $1.58 per share.  

iPhone 17 Sales & Apple Services Growth

Reporting results for its fiscal fourth quarter, Wall Street will be paying close attention to how trade tensions with China may potentially impact Apple’s outlook. However, enhanced AI features in the iPhone 17 are helping to offset tariff concerns and increased competition from Chinese competitors like Huawei and Xiaomi, with China being Apple’s largest market outside of the U.S.

Driven by the release of the iPhone 17 in September, Apple’s Q4 sales in China are thought to have increased 4% to more than $18 billion. Optimistically, Apple’s Services segment (App store, iCloud, subscriptions) is thought to have expanded 13% during Q4, pushing annual services revenue to over $100 billion for the first time. As a whole, Apple’s Q4 sales are expected to be up 6% to $101.19 billion, with quarterly EPS expected to rise 5% to $1.73.

Amazon & Apple Valuation Comparison  

Although Amazon and Apple have been the laggards among the Mag 7 in 2025, they are in the middle of the pack in terms of price-to-forward earnings valuation at just over 30X. Tesla commands the highest P/E premium among the group, followed by Nvidia and Microsoft, with Alphabet and Meta Platforms META having the cheapest valuations in this regard at under 30X.

That said, Amazon has the most reasonable price to forward sales multiple of 3.4X, with Apple’s 9.1X being third behind Alphabet’s 8.7X.

What the Zacks Rank Suggests

Attributed to its more exhilarating EPS growth and a positive trend in EPS revisions for fiscal 2025 and FY26, Amazon stock currently sports a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Apple shares, on the other hand, land a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) as FY25 and FY26 EPS revisions are slightly down in the last 30 days despite steady bottom line expansion in the forecast as well.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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