Amazon.com posted Wednesday stronger than expected first quarter results, in part driven by strong sales in its electronics and general merchandise categories.
The online retailing giant also issued a forecast for the current quarter and year that shows greater strength than Wall Street's current estimates.
Shares of Amazon, however, were down roughly 4 percent in after-hours trading to $77.77 a share.
During the first quarter, Amazon generated net income of 34 cents a share to $143 million, up 30 percent compared with the previous year. Revenues jumped 37 percent to $4.13 billion in the quarter, verses the same period a year ago.
Wall Street was expecting the company to report earnings of 32 cents a share on revenues of $4.08 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
The online retailer got a large leg up from its worldwide electronics and general merchandise sales, which soared 56 percent to $1.48 billion in the quarter, compared with year ago figures.
Amazon's global media sales rose a sharp 28 percent to $2.54 billion in the quarter, compared with last year.
"Our sales growth this quarter was driven by low prices and millions of in-stock items available for immediate shipment," Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, said in a statement. "We're grateful to our customers."
And in forecasting its second quarter and year-end, Amazon expects to generate greater revenues or stronger earnings than a consensus of analysts, according to Thomson Reuters, which tracks analysts projections.
Although Wall Street expects Amazon to post revenues of $3.84 billion in the second quarter, Amazon gave guidance it expects to exceed that level - with expectations of generating between approximately $3.88 billion to $4.1 billion.
And while analysts expect Amazon to post operating income of $125.3 million in the quarter, the company said it expects to do between $120 million to $160 million.
The online retailing giant expects its year-end operating income will outstrip current year-end estimates, saying it expects to raise between $740 million to $940 million in operating income. Wall Street had been expecting Amazon to do $662.3 million for the year.
And on the revenue front, Amazon expects to generate $19.1 billion to $20 billion, compared with Wall Street's projections of $19.3 billion.
- prev
- 1
- next
