Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) will report its fourth quarter financial results today, Jan.30, followed by a conference call at 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET on the same day. Wall Street analysts expect the company to post earnings of 66 cents a share, which is an increase of more than three-fold from the 21 cents earned last year.
In the past four quarters, results from the online retailer have been able to top the consensus estimate only once, missed by a huge margin twice and once the results were in line with the estimates. The consensus estimate for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) have declined by 3 cents in the last three months, and over the past 30 days, only two analysts have revised their profit estimates.
Analysts optimistic on Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is expected to report fourth quarter revenue of $26.07 billion up 22.60% from $21.27 billion in the same period last year. The online retailer has provided guidance of $23.5 billion and $26.5 billion for sales, which is a growth of 10% and 25% from the fourth quarter 2012. Analysts and experts will closely monitor the contributions made by North America and International markets.
For the full year, the company is expected to earn 73 cents a share on revenue of $74.94 billion compared to a loss of 9 cents a share on revenues of $61.09 billion.
In a note to investors on Jan. 17, RBC Capital Markets analysts Mark Mahaney and Andre Sequin said “Amazon is one of the best plays on the 10 Internet growth factors (mobile, cloud, same-day delivery, alternative payments, etc…),” and added “And we believe Amazon is at a fundamental inflection point” regarding revenue growth and margin expansion.”
Kindle sales to boost the results
Holiday season sales – primarily Kindle shipments and video game sales – may boost the fourth quarter sales for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). This time, Amazon launched the new 7″ and 8.9″ versions of Kindle, in the fourth quarter, which is a break from the previous trend. UBS analyst Eric Sheridan believes that the sales of the new version of the Kindle Paperwhite eReader would gain from the last year’s stock-out issues, which delayed some of the shipments by a quarter.
Apart from the Kindle, sales of video game console and games over the holiday season would also uplift the results. These items were named one of the top sellers on Black Friday at Wal-Mart and Target.
