Shares of Amazon are down more than 4 per cent in after-hours trading, after the company posted a full-year net loss, weaker-than-expected holiday profits, and a gloomy forecast.
For the December quarter, Amazon’s net income plummeted to A$424 million from A$20.2 billion during the same period the year prior.
Operating income decreased to A$3.8 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with A$4.95 billion in fourth quarter 2021.
Net sales increased 9 per cent during the quarter (without the unfavourable exchange rate, this would have been 12 per cent), to A$210.8 billion, compared with A$193.8 billion in the previous December quarter
Amazon’s Web Services pulled in A$30.2 billion in the three months, up 20 per cent from the prior year, but falling short of both Wall Street consensus of A$30.8 billion, and declining from the 27 per cent growth in the September quarter.
The full year results were even less rosy.
Amazon posted a full-year net loss of A$3.8 billion, a far cry from 2021’s A$47.2 billion profit.
This includes a a pre-tax valuation loss of $17.95 billion from a nightmarish stock investment in Rivian Automotive. Conversely, the 2021 profits include a A$16.68 billion gain the company posted from the shares.
Online store sales were down 2 per cent from the previous year, to $91.2 billion.
For the first quarter, Amazon predicts revenue between A$171 billion and A$178 billion, well short of the short of the Wall Street consensus for A$197 billion.
An operating income forecast of between zero and A$5.6 billion also has investors worried, consider Wall Street predicted A$5.9 billion.
“In the short term, we face an uncertain economy, but we remain quite optimistic about the long-term opportunities for Amazon,” CEO Andy Jassy (above) said.
The vast majority of total market segment share in both Global Retail and IT still reside in physical stores and on-premises datacenters; and as this equation steadily flips, we believe our leading customer experiences in these areas along with the results of our continued hard work and invention to improve every day, will lead to significant growth in the coming years.
“When you also factor in our investments and innovation in several other broad customer experiences (e.g. streaming entertainment, customer-first healthcare, broadband satellite connectivity for more communities globally), there’s additional reason to feel optimistic about what the future holds.”
