Amazon surprises with quarterly profit

[fjtorres]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0PX2HX20150723

Amazon.com Inc swung to an unexpected quarterly profit on higher sales in North America, its popular Prime subscription service and growing demand for its Web services, sending the online retailer’s shares up more than 17 percent.

Amazon also forecast third-quarter revenue above estimates.

Sales in North America, the company’s biggest market, rose 25.5 percent to $13.8 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier, helped by strong demand for electronics and general merchandise.

Cloud-computing revenue soared 81.5 percent to $1.82 billion, accounting for nearly 8 percent of the quarter’s revenue, Amazon said on Thursday.

“Growth has been fueled in large part by Prime growth and also (item) selection growth so it’s been a huge driver both in North America and international segments,” Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said on a conference call with reporters.

"It looks like they beat across every major revenue line," said Colin Sebastian, analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. "That, along with the surprise profit beat, is icing on the cake, so to speak."

The company forecast net sales would grow 13 percent to 24 percent, to a range of $23.3 billion to $25.5 billion, in the third quarter. This is well above analysts' consensus estimate of $23.89 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Somebody is going to be taken to the woodshed for not spending enough.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Somebody is going to be taken to the woodshed for not spending enough.

I was thinking the same thing. This is something you'd expect from Apple, not Amazon.

[eschwartz]

I wouldn't worry about it, it can't last.

Sanity will re-assert itself in due course.

[fjtorres]

Part of the problem is AWS: the thing is growing ridiculous fast and the margins are, if not Apple-like (nobody else gets away with 50-60% margins) certainly Microsoft- and IBM-like.

Here:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-mar...ud-juggernaut/

Simply put, AWS Marketplace takes Amazon's e-commerce knowhow and applies it to cloud applications. In the AWS cloud, you can buy applications by the hour and in some cases smaller increments. The general idea is that enterprises can try before buying more easily and generate revenue for software vendors sans the shelfware.

Last year at re:Invent I got a briefing on AWS Marketplace, which was just starting to get noticed. Amazon launched the AWS Marketplace, but took its time so it could get the metered billing approach correct.

Now analysts are on the bandwagon. Pachter noted:

Amazon introduced AWS Marketplace in November 2014, and expanded the Marketplace in April 2015 to include Desktop Apps and WorkSpaces Applications Manager (WAM). Stated in simple English, these products allow third parties to sell desktop and productivity software and SaaS through an Amazon Marketplace, similar to entertainment applications sold through the Apple App Store. The takeaway is that AWS Marketplace is positioned to see dramatic revenue growth at 30% contribution margin over the next several months, as an increasing number of AWS customers take advantage of the streamlined marketplace provided for their software and SaaS applications.

Figure $8B a year at 30% margin.
And it's still growing.
Gonna be hard to spend all that.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Part of the problem is AWS: the thing is growing ridiculous fast and the margins are, if not Apple-like (nobody else gets away with 50-60% margins) certainly Microsoft- and IBM-like.

Here:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-mar...ud-juggernaut/



Figure $8B a year at 30% margin.
And it's still growing.
Gonna be hard to spend all that.

Dont underestimate Bezos he does not like Amazon to make money. Probably underestimated the profits now Amazon is going to invest a lot more in the next few quarters to make up for the mistake.

[darryl]

Even in the EBook sphere Amazon must be doing much better financially. Under agency, it is no longer subsidising the sale of Cartel EBooks at $9.99. Any loss of sales volume through excessive pricing by the Cartel is offset to some unknown degree by a greater share of revenue for Amazon from these titles, since the Cartel members are apparently forfeiting their Amazon incentive to price reasonably. Further, it seems that many readers not buying Cartel ebooks at the higher prices are still spending their money with Amazon but on self-published and Indy titles. Make no mistake, Amazon is probably the major and perhaps ultimately the only beneficiary of Agency. If publishers come to the party and price their ebooks reasonably, they will now bear the full cost of "discounting" themselves. If they don't, they will continue to lose sales to self-published and Indy Authors, a segment of the market dominated by Amazon.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I was thinking the same thing. This is something you'd expect from Apple, not Amazon.

Maybe I'm taking you too seriously, but:

Apple earned $10.7 billion in profits on quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion. That works out to a 22 percent profit margin.

Amazon earned $92 million in profits on quarterly revenue of $23.2 billion. That works out to a 0.4 percent profit margin.

Apple's profit margin for the quarter is thus about 55 times greater than Amazon's.

Source:

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/...eauty-contest/

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Maybe I'm taking you too seriously, but:

Yeah, you are. I forgot to put the winky smiley at the end of my sentence. My bad

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Somebody is going to be taken to the woodshed for not spending enough.

If they've run out of spending ideas, they can feel free to put money into my bank account

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Yolina

If they've run out of spending ideas, they can feel free to put money into my bank account

[murg]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Maybe I'm taking you too seriously, but:

Apple earned $10.7 billion in profits on quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion. That works out to a 22 percent profit margin.

Amazon earned $92 million in profits on quarterly revenue of $23.2 billion. That works out to a 0.4 percent profit margin.

Apple's profit margin for the quarter is thus about 55 times greater than Amazon's.

Source:

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/...eauty-contest/

Apple's trying to show a profit. Amazon's ploughing everything back into growing the business. Hence the wonder at Amazon showing a profit.

At least Amazon isn't playing 'hide the profits' in tax havens like Apple is.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by murg

At least Amazon is playing 'hide the profits' in tax havens like Apple is.

I really don't think that Amazon hide their profits anywhere - they are very open about the fact that they plough their income back into the business in things like building new distribution centres. Can you give an example of what you're referring to?

[Xanthe]

I think that "is playing" was meant to be "isn't playing"...

[theducks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really don't think that Amazon hide their profits anywhere - they are very open about the fact that they plough their income back into the business in things like building new distribution centres. Can you give an example of what you're referring to?

Not to mention, buying companies (see list of some at the bottom of most Amazon pages). There are at least 2 nearby here (1 is just down the street from Apple ).

[murg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really don't think that Amazon hide their profits anywhere - they are very open about the fact that they plough their income back into the business in things like building new distribution centres. Can you give an example of what you're referring to?

Originally Posted by Xanthe

I think that "is playing" was meant to be "isn't playing"...

Oops, that was supposed to be an "isn't"