Amazon, Q4 Earnings Beat Expectations but Shares Fall 3% After Hours

First Quarter Earnings Outlook Falls Short of Expectations

Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce company, announced on the 6th (local time) that it recorded sales of $187.79 billion (271.6945 trillion KRW) and earnings per share of $1.86 (2,691 KRW) in the fourth quarter of last year.

Reuters Yonhap News

Sales exceeded the average estimate of $187.3 billion by Wall Street analysts compiled by market research firm LSEG, and earnings per share also surpassed the expected $1.49. Sales increased by 10% compared to the same period last year.

In particular, online retail sales rose 7% to $75.56 billion, exceeding the expected $74.55 billion.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud service, recorded sales of $28.79 billion, a 19% increase, but fell short of the expected $28.87 billion. However, the AWS growth rate was higher than the 13% growth rate in the same period last year.

Advertising revenue was $17.3 billion, below the expected $17.4 billion.

Amazon forecasted that first-quarter sales this year would increase by up to 9% year-over-year to reach $155.5 billion. However, this is lower than the expected $158.5 billion.

Amazon explained, "The first-quarter earnings outlook is expected to be unusually negatively impacted by exchange rates," adding, "We expect an impact of $2.1 billion, equivalent to 1.5%."

Amazon's stock price closed up 1.13% in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange that day but was down more than 3% in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.