Shares of Amazon (AMZN) climbed 7.09%, 117.97 points, in the regular session today on hopes for a good earnings report after the market close.
The company delivered an earnings beat for the current quarter, reporting earnings of $5.75 a share, $2.66 better than the $3.09 Wall Street analysts had expected. Revenue of $56.58 billion was up 29.3% year over year but below the $57.03 billion projected by analysts.
The big sin, however, was the release of lower guidance for the fourth quarter. The company told Wall Street to expected revenue of $66.5 billion to $72.5 billon, Analysts had been projected revenue of $73.78 for the quarter. Amazon also projected operating income of $2.1 billion to $3.6 billion versus expectations for $3.89 billion.
Digging a little deeper into the numbers showed some potentially troubling trends. Amazon’s core business-you know, selling stuff–didn’t turn in huge growth. Online sales climbed just 11% in the quarter with third party seller services gaining 32% year over year.
Cloud services (AWS), on the other hand, saw a 49% gain in revenue and income climbed 79%. Advertising revenue continued to grow at an astounding pace, gaining 123% to $2.5 billion in the quarter.
In after-hours trading Amazon shares fell 107.92, giving up almost all that they’d gain in the regular session, for a decline of 5.61%.
Makes me wish–in hindsight–that I’d held onto the Amazon November 23 put options that I sold out of my Volatility Portfolio today with a 58.3% gain. (You can follow my Volatility Portfolio on my subscription sites JubakAM.com and JugglingWithKnives.com)
I hold Amazon shares in my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio.I’d give the stock a neutral rating today for the short-term. Long-term I remain bullish on Amazon.
Full disclosure: I hold Amazon in my personal portfolios.
