Amazon Falling Fast After Fourth Quarter Earnings Miss

E-commerce giant Amazon.com may have grown its revenue 20% in its fourth fiscal quarter of 2013, but investors are punishing the stock in after-market activity Thursday afternoon, because despite the growth Amazon fell short of Street expectations on both revenue and earnings per share. As a result, shares of the company have completely reversed their daytime gains and are down more than 7% in after-market trading.

Amazon reported $25.6 billion in fourth quarter revenue, a 20% increase over the same time in 2012 and falling within the wide range - $23.5 billion to $26.5 billion - the company predicted in its third quarter earnings results, but missing Street estimates of $26 billion. Fourth quarter net income increased to $239 million, resulting in earnings of 51 cents per share. This, again, improves upon the same time in 2012 - when Amazon reported $97 million in net income and earnings of 21 cents - but falls short of the analyst consensus, which called for earnings of 66 cents per share.

On a full-year basis, Amazon saw $74.5 billion in revenue, a 22% increase over the $61.1 billion for full-year 2012 revenue. With regards to its 2013 full-year net income, Amazon reversed 2012′s net loss of $39 million, or a loss of 9 cents per share, reporting 2013 net income of $274 million and earnings of 59 cents per share.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos did not address the earnings miss in his statement about the results Thursday afternoon, instead highlighting how it is 'a good time to be an Amazon customer' because of customer service advances like the Mayday button on the Kindle Fire and Sunday delivery for Amazon packages.

The company did acknowledge it was hit by a $258 million negative impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the fourth quarter; on a full-year basis, Amazon saw a $1.28 billion negative impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates.

Turning its eye towards 2014, Amazon provided guidance for its first fiscal quarter of 2014, predicting revenue somewhere between $18.2 billion and $19.9 billion, or growth between 13% and 24%. The retailer gave a wide range of a $200 million loss to a $200 million gain for its first quarter operating income, compared to $181 million in the first quarter of 2013. Hedging these already wide ranges, Amazon said, 'Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, [and] the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce.'

Though the e-commerce site finished Thursday trading at $403.01, or a 4.9% gain, investors' disappointment in the fourth quarter hammered the stock in after hours trading. Shares of the company, which at one point were down as much as 10%, are currently down 7.5%. Year over year, shares of the company are up 40.9%.

Lokasi:

Share :