Amazon.com Inc. has reported an 89% surge in net income to $20 billion for the fourth quarter (Q4) of the 2024 financial year (FY24) as net sales rose 10% to $187.8 billion.
But the share price eased in after-hours trading as forecast revenue was below market expectations.
The global technology giant said diluted earnings (EPS) per share jumped 86% to $1.86 in the final three months of the financial year ending 31 December.
Over the full year, net income increased 95% to $59.2 billion and diluted EPS climbed by 91% to $5.53 as net sales rose 11% to $638.0 billion.
“The holiday shopping season was the most successful yet for Amazon and we appreciate the support of our customers, selling partners, and employees who helped make it so,” President and CEO Andy Jassy said in an earnings release.
Among the highlights of Q4, Amazon:
- delivered record speeds to Prime shopping and entertainment service members
- increased same day or overnight deliveries 65%+ to U.S. Prime members
- held record-breaking Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday deal events
- drew 50 million worldwide viewers to the Red One film on Prime Video
- increased Thursday Night Football viewers to 13.2 million on Prime Video, and
- lifted Kindle device sales by 30%
Turning to the outlook for Q1 FY25, Amazon said net sales were expected to grow between 5% and 9% from Q1 FY24 to between $151.0 billion and $155.5 billion, which will include an unusually large, unfavourable impact of about $2.1 billion.
It said operating income in Q1 was expected to be between $14.0 billion and $18.0 billion, compared with $15.3 billion in first quarter 2024.
Although Q4 revenue, operating profit and EPS beat or were in line with analysts’ expectations, the Q1 net sales forecast was lower than expected, resulting in the share price falling just over 1% in after-hours trading.
Amazon shares (NASDAQ: AMZN) added $2.66 (1.13%) on the day to close at $238.83, capitalising the company at $2.50 trillion, before losing all of these gains and a little more in after-hours trading to drop to $235.89.
