Amazon reported its first-quarter 2014 earnings:
- EPS: $0.23 (analysts were expecting $0.23). That's right on the money.
- Revenues: up 23% to $19.7 billion (analysts were expecting $19.43). That's a tiny beat.
Amazon's video strategy seems to be paying off: "Video streams on Prime Instant Video nearly tripled year over year," the company said. Amazon has approved six new original series in addition to a series of half-hour comedies from cult director Whit Stillman.
The stock rose 2% in after-hours trading.
Here's the guidance:
- Net sales are expected to be between $18.1 billion and $19.8 billion, or to grow between 15% and 26% compared with second quarter 2013.
- Operating income (loss) is expected to be between $(455) million and $(55) million, compared to $79 million in second quarter 2013.
Here are Amazon's historic revenues:
Here's the sales breakdown:
Here's CEO Jeff Bezos' official quote:
"We get our energy from inventing on behalf of customers, and 2014 is off to a kinetic start,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Our device team launched Fire TV, offering great content, including our recently announced exclusive deal with HBO, and innovative features like unified voice search, which we’re delighted is being adopted by so many new partners, including Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Crackle and Showtime Anytime. The team is working hard to keep Fire TV in stock."
Really, everyone is hoping management will drop some hint about the phone Amazon is rumored to be making.
It's been a big quarter for Amazon, which launched a streaming TV box called Fire TV and added classic HBO content to its library of shows on Amazon Prime.
The company introduced Amazon Pantry, which lets customers order 45 pounds of groceries for a flat fee.
Amazon is ramping up its AmazonFresh same-day grocery-delivery service with Dash, a barcode-scanning device that lets users make grocery lists on the go.
Lastly, the price of Amazon Prime was raised by $20 to $99 a year.
