Amazon reported revenues for the fourth quarter of 2015 at $35.7bn (£24.9bn), 22% ahead of the same period in 2014 while profits more than doubled to $482m (£336m).
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The company projects that sales in the current quarter will come in between $26.5 billion and $29.0 billion, meaning they could up between 17% and 28% over last year’s Q1.
Amazon said costs increased partly from expanding its Fulfillment by Amazon service for third-party sellers during the busy holiday season. Analysts, however, were expecting $36bn in sales and net income of $754m.
The huge growth during the company’s fourth quarter also helped Amazon to become profitable in 2015, generating $596 million in net profits for the year, compared to a net loss of $241 million in 2014.
Sales in the segment rose to $2.41 billion in the quarter, up 69 percent from the previous year.
“The growth story that investors were looking for… clearly Amazon has not been able to live up to the hype”, said Adam Sarhan, Chief Executive of Sarhan Capital.
The group has also put more traditional grocery brands on edge with the rollout of Amazon Fresh, which launched in London and Birmingham last October under the Amazon Prime Now banner.
Amazon Prime and Amazon’s cloud-computing division are killing it.
Inc. reported the largest quarterly profit in its 19-year history as a public company, as more consumers eschew brick-and-mortar retail for the convenience of ordering goods and services from their couch.
The company’s total operating expenses rose more than 20 percent to US$34.64 billion in the fourth quarter. CEO Jeff Bezos has predicted that cloud sales will one day surpass Amazon’s retail revenue. Just before 5 PM ET, less than an hour after the financials were released, Amazon’s stock was down more than 10% in after hours trading.
Part of Amazon’s retail success has been driven by its successful Prime membership program.
Amazon’s transition from pure-play e-commerce to sophisticated technology services continues. Amazon said its Fire TV streaming devices remain the best-selling in the U.S., while Prime membership – which includes access to the Fire TV streaming service of films and television, as well as a music service and quicker delivery from Amazon Store – rose by 51% globally.
Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle programme received two Golden Globes earlier in January, only a year after the company scored its first win ever at the Globes for the original programme Transparent.
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2014: $7 billion 2015: $7.3 billion, up 4%.
