Amazon’s (AMZN) stock is up 6% after the e-commerce company issued fourth-quarter financial results and guidance that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.
For the final three months of 2023, Amazon reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1 U.S. compared to $0.80 U.S. that had been expected among analysts that cover the company.
Revenue in the quarter totaled $170 billion U.S. versus $166.20 billion U.S. that was forecast on Wall Street. Sales were up 14% from a year ago due to strong holiday shopping.
Amazon’s profit of $1 U.S. per share was up 3,233% from only $0.03 U.S. a share a year earlier, indicating that management’s efforts to control costs is paying off.
Beyond the headline numbers, the company also reported that revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS) totaled $24.20 billion U.S., matching expectations.
Advertising revenue in Q4 2023 came in at $14.70 billion U.S., ahead of the $14.20 billion U.S. that was forecast.
Looking ahead, Amazon said that its sales in the current first quarter of 2024 will be between $138 billion U.S. and $143.50 billion U.S., representing year-over-year growth of 8% to 13%.
Analysts were expecting revenue of $142.10 billion U.S. for the current quarter.
On an earnings call, Amazon’s management team said that the company will continue to take a careful approach to new investments going forward.
Executives also said that generative artificial intelligence (A.I.) remains a small business at Amazon, but the company believes it can drive “tens of billions of dollars” in revenue over the next several years from the technology.
Amazon recently announced a generative A.I. shopping assistant called “Rufus” that it’s testing with users in America.
Before today (Feb. 2), Amazon’s stock had risen 41% over the last 12 months and was trading at $159.28 U.S. per share.
