Amazon.com, Inc.
(NDAQ: AMZN) continues to impress the street with solid earnings and
bullish outlooks. The online retailer posted fourth quarter revenues of
$5.67 billion and earnings per share of 48 cents today - beating
revenue estimates by analysts. Amazon also issued a surprisingly
bullish outlook considering that the street expected the company to
issue conservative guidance. Shareholders are hoping that the online
retailer can continue stealing market share and work to dominate the
ecommerce arena.
Amazon announced that it sees sales of $3.95 billion to $4.15
billion for the first quarter, which is well ahead of street estimates
of $3.92 billion. Meanwhile, the company sees operating income for the
quarter of $155 million to $200 million, which represents year over
year growth of 37% to 38%. Amazon sees its full year sales at $18.75
billion to $19.95 billion compared to street estimates of $18.25
billion. Meanwhile, it sees operating income of $785 million to $985
million. These are all strong numbers that has some investors very
bullish on the company.
However, investors pushed the stock down some 11% afterhours on the
news as concerns surfaced about the company’s suffering margins. Some
investors are concerned that the company may have cut prices in order
to achieve sales goals, which is only a temporary solution to a
long-term problem. The company needs to find a way to grow without
resorting to price cuts or they may be forced to deal with increasingly
lower margins on their goods sold. The forecasts also take into account
further cuts into margins and have only served to amplify concerns.
Regardless, analysts still remain impressed that the company was
able to publish such high numbers and felt that these estimates should
be rather conservative. If Amazon is able to pull off another earnings
surprise in the fourth quarter, we could see shares move much higher.
In the end, it looks like this online retailer is continuing to pull
market share from brick-and-mortar competition and increase in
dominance in the fast-growing ecommerce marketplace. combined, these
factors make AMZN a stock worth watching!
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