Why This Amazon Earnings Report Is Knocking It Out of the Park

April 27, 2017 by Chris Lange

Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported first-quarter financial results after markets closed on Thursday. Jeff Bezos must be happy with this quarter after Amazon absolutely blew away estimates. It was not that long ago where analysts were concerned if Amazon could turn a profit but now it seems that this company can knock it out of the park.

Another huge factor in this report was Amazon Web Services (AWS), which deals with Amazon’s cloud empire. This segment has been making incredible gains and it doesn’t seem like this will stop anytime soon. Not to mention this is a huge contributor to the bottom-line.

The e-commerce giant posted $1.48 in earnings per share (EPS) and $35.7 billion in revenue, versus consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $1.13 in EPS and $35.31 billion in revenues. The first-quarter from last year had $1.07 in EPS and $29.13 billion in revenue.

Looking at AWS, revenues and net income continued to grow at a spectacular rate. This segment posted $3.66 billion in revenue, with $890 million in net income. The same period last year only had $2.57 billion in revenue and $604 million in revenue.

In terms of the outlook for the second quarter, the company expects to see net sales in the range of $35.25 billion to $37.75 billion, also operating income is expected to be in the range of $425 million to $1.075 billion. The consensus estimates are calling for $1.88 in EPS and $36.84 billion in revenue for the coming quarter.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, commented:

Our India team is moving fast and delivering for customers and sellers. 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. We’re grateful that customers are responding — Amazon.in is the most visited and the fastest growing marketplace in India. It’s still Day 1 for e-commerce in India, and I assure you that we’ll keep investing in technology and infrastructure while working hard to invent on behalf of our customers and small and medium businesses in India.

Shares of Amazon closed Thursday up 1% at $918.76, with a consensus analyst price target of $975.69 and a 52-week trading range of $599.20 to $923.72. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was up 4% at $956.90 in the after-hours trading session.

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