Online retailer posts 3Q profit of 17 cents a share; stock slumps after hours.
October 21, 2004: 5:01 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday it posted a third-quarter profit that fell just shy of Wall Street estimates.
The Web's largest retailer reported a third-quarter net income, excluding one-time items, of $73 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with $48 million, or 11 cents per share in the year-earlier period.
Sales increased 29 percent to $1.46 billion. The company's international division reported sales up 52 percent from a year ago.
Analysts had forecast a profit of 18 cents a share for the quarter on sales of $1.4 billion.
Shares of Amazon (Research) fell to 7 percent in after-hours trading on INET, after gaining 3 percent to $39.47 in regular trading on Nasdaq.
Including stock compensation expenses, restructuring and other charges, Amazon posted a net profit of $54 million, or 13 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with a profit of $16 million, or 4 cents a share, a year earlier.
Amazon said it expects sales of $2.29 billion to $2.54 billion for the fourth quarter, which would be up from 18 percent to 31 percent from a year earlier, and from $6.6 billion to $6.9 billion, or up from 27 percent to 32 percent, for all of 2004.
That compares with analysts' average forecasts of $2.4 billion for the quarter and $6.8 billion for the full year, according to Thomson/First Call
Though Amazon did not give earnings-per-share guidance, it said it expects operating income of $137 million to $197 million for the fourth quarter and operating income of $415 million to $475 million for 2004.
Analysts forecast a profit of 41 cents a share in the fourth quarter and 99 cents a share for all of 2004.
However, Amazon said sales for full-year 2005 are expected to be come in at $7.40 billion to $8.15 billion. That's below analysts' consensus estimate of $8.2 billion, according to First Call.
"The guidance for 2005 is well below our forecast, and it implies a growth of only 14 percent," said Safa Rashtchy, analyst with Piper Jaffray. "Our forecast was for growth of about 20 percent."
"This could be a case of Amazon just being overly conservative, or business is slowing down and the company is feeling pressure from competitors," he added.
O Clubeinvest.com informa que nenhuma da informação
aqui facultada deverá ser entendida como conselho ou recomendação
de qualquer tipo de transacção ou investimento.
