Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) said its sales blew past £75 billion for the first time in the fiscal fourth quarter. Also on Tuesday, CEO Jeff Bezos said he will exit the role in Q3 of 2021 and named Andy Jassy, the current head of Amazon Web Services, as the tech giant’s next Chief Executive Officer. In a letter to employees on Tuesday, Bezos said:
“Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else. As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions. I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring.”
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Amazon’s Q4 financial results versus analysts’ estimates
According to Refinitiv, experts had forecast the company to print £87.63 billion of revenue in the fourth quarter. Their estimate for per-share earnings stood at £5.29. In its report on Tuesday, Amazon topped both estimates posting a higher £91.92 billion of revenue in Q4 and £10.32 of earnings per share. In the prior quarter (Q3), the tech giant had noted a 37% increase in sales.
For the full financial year, the American multinational reported £15.59 billion of earnings and £282.58 billion of revenue. In comparison, its earnings and revenue were capped at a lower £8.48 billion and £205.35 billion, respectively, in fiscal 2019.
Amazon now forecasts up to £77.60 billion of sales in the fiscal first quarter versus the experts’ forecast of £70.13 billion. The Seattle-based company expressed confidence on Tuesday that the COVID-19 relates costs were likely to shrink to roughly £1.46 billion in Q1.
Other prominent figures in Amazon’s earnings report
Other prominent figures in Amazon’s earnings report on Tuesday include £9.30 billion of revenue from cloud-computing that represents a 28% annualised growth. Analysts, on the other hand, had called for a higher £9.39 billion of revenue from this unit instead. Physical store unit, including Whole Foods Market, as per Amazon, saw an 8% year over year decline in the recent quarter.
Amazon shares were reported more than 1% up in after-hours trading on Tuesday. At the time of writing, the world’s largest online retailer is valued at £1.24 trillion and has a price to earnings ratio of 98.98.
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