Amazon.com, Inc. Stock Skyrockets After Smashing Earnings Estimates

Amazon released its latest earnings report after closing bell tonight, posting GAAP earnings of $1.48 per share per share on $35.7 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting GAAP earnings of $1.08 per share and $35.3 billion in revenue. In last year’s first quarter, the Internet firm reported $29.1 billion in sales and $1.07 per share in GAAP earnings.

By Szk7788 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Amazon performs well in India

Net income rose to $724 million from $513 million last year. North America net sales rose to $21 billion, while International net sales increased to $11.06 billion. Amazon Web Services revenues grew to $3.66 billion. Management expressed satisfaction at their progress in India.

“Our India team is moving fast and delivering for customers and sellers,” Amazon Founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “The team has increased Prime selection by 75% since launching the program nine months ago, increased fulfillment capacity for sellers by 26% already this year, announced 18 Indian Original TV series, and just last week introduced a Fire TV Stick optimized for Indian customers with integrated voice search in English and Hindi.”

Amazon provides guidance

Most analysts have been gushing over the online retailer of late and have been boosting their price targets en masse, although Raymond James downgraded it earlier this week, citing a need to see better margins. Goldman Sachs analysts said recently that they believe Amazon’s revenue will rise faster than what most are currently expecting because of the most recent round of increased investments in infrastructure, digital content and other areas.

For the second quarter, the online retailer expects net sales of $35.25 billion to $37.75 billion and operating income of $425 million to $1.075 billion. Wall Street had been expecting $37 billion in revenue for the second quarter.

Shares of Amazon rose by as much as 4.6% to $960.34 in extended trading. The stock was on track for its tenth record close of the year before the bell, and it’s only April.