Maybe Amazon.com, Inc.‘s (AMZN) first-quarter report will help this Zacks #3 Rank (‘hold’) company improve its ranking. It would require analysts to boost their estimates, so we’ll have to wait and see if they got what they needed.
The online retail staple earned 66 cents per share in the quarter, which was 4 cents ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate. That’s not as sharp a surprise as the 18% in the fourth quarter, but does mark the company’s 15th straight quarter with a positive earnings surprise. In the year-ago quarter, AMZN reported 41 cents per share.
Net sales jumped 46% to $7.13 billion from $4.89 billion a year earlier. The North America segment’s sales jumped 47% to $3.78 billion, while International segment sales advanced 45% to $3.35 billion. Kindle remains the company’s #1 bestselling product.
For the second quarter, AMZN expects net sales between $6.1 billion and $6.7 billion, which would be up 31% to 44% year over year.
Shares of Amazon have dropped by more than 4% in after hours trading.
Earnings estimates for Amazon have been pretty static since the company’s last quarterly report. In fact, only a few pennies differentiate the Zacks Consensus Estimate for both this year and next from 2 months ago, underscoring its Zacks #3 Rank.
There are 30 total estimates for this year, accounting for a Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.93, which is a penny higher than 60 days ago. The past 30 days has seen 1 upward revision and 3 downward revisions, while the past 7 days have seen 2 upward revisions and 2 downward revisions. However, that guidance is more than 13% better than 3 months ago.
Next year’s Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.81 suggests year-over-year profit growth of 30%, which is good. Not so good is that, much like the current year, the outlook has barely changed in 2 months. It is up 8.5% in 3 months. There are 28 total estimates for the period.
The longer-term recommendation from Zacks Equity Research is actually an “Outperform”, since we believe that the company’s market position and financial muscle is enough to outgrow the increasingly competitive environment.
We’ll have a lot more on Amazon’s first quarter report coming up…
Read the full analyst report on “AMZN”
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