It’s that time of year again when investors wonder: “How’s Amazon doing?” and then Amazon tells them.
Today the amorphous company revealed that its revenues rose 28 percent this quarter (Q1 2016) to $29.1 billion, up from last year’s Q1 revenues of $22.72 billion.
Amazon also reported highest-ever profits of $513 million during the first quarter, up from a loss of $57 million last year, thanks in part to the company’s cloud business. Earnings per share came in at $1.07.
The company surpassed analysts’ expectations, who on average anticipated revenues of $27.98 billion and earnings per share of $0.58.
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Last time Amazon reported its quarterly earnings, in January, things got pretty weird. The company turned a (then) record profit of $482 million, but investors drove Amazon’s stock down by 13 percent after seeing the company’s holiday sales, which weren’t as strong as they’d have liked. Like we said last quarter, there’s a reason why investors aren’t looking for big profits from Amazon — they’d rather see crazy revenue (that is, sales) growth:
Amazon’s business philosophy goes something like this: When the company makes money, it reinvests that money right back into the business. Amazon has always been upfront about this plan, and investors are cool with it — except when they’re not.
Anyway, a lot of things are going well for Amazon. The company’s cloud business (AWS) continues to grow, the Prime strategy — Amazon’s subscription service for lots of stuff — seems to be going well (though we don’t know for sure, since Amazon won’t tell us), and the Echo — Amazon’s cylindrical home assistant — is turning out to be a surprise hit (though, again, we don’t really know, because Amazon won’t say how many it sold).
Amazon’s stock jumped by more than 11 percent during after-hours trading today.
