Online retail giant Amazon disappointed investors with its profit forecast for the current quarter on Thursday, with shares falling by more than 5% at times in after-hours trading.
In the previous quarter the e-commerce giant had exceeded analysts’ expectations with its key figures.
Amazon forecast an operating profit of between $13 billion and $17.5 billion for the second quarter. Analysts had expected an average forecast of $17.6 billion.
In the first quarter, the company reported that sales were up 9% to $155.7 billion from $143.3 billion last year. The bottom line was a profit of $17.13 billion, or $1.59 per share, compared to $10.43 billion a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected the company to earn $1.37 per share. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenue from the cloud division AWS, which is benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence, rose by 17% to $29.3 billion. Analysts had expected an increase of 17.6%. Reuters