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Amazon on Thursday reported worse-than-expected profits, but its revenue beat expectations boosted by sales in its cloud-computing unit AWS, which is also seeing a slow-down in growth.
Amazon said it made $300 million in profits, or 3 cents per share, falling below the $2.03 billion analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting. The company said its profits were dented by a $2.3 billion write-down of the value of its stock investment in electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive.
The company’s fourth quarter profits represent a significant drop from the $14.3 billion it posted during the same period in 2021, when the company had a nearly $12 billion gain from its investment in Rivian Automotive.
Shares in Amazon.com Inc. fell 4% in after-hours trading.
At the same time, Amazon said its overall revenue rose 9% to $149.2 billion, higher than the $145.7 billion analysts were expecting. It said it expects revenue of between $121 billion and $126 billion during the current quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting $125 billion.
The earnings report closes a rough 2022 for Amazon, when the company lost nearly half of its value amid a broader sell-off of tech shares tied to rising inflation, interest rates and concerns about the wider economy. It posted a loss of $2.7 billion for the full-year.
“While some of this is down to the company’s investment in Rivian, which is putting significant pressure on the bottom line, it is also clear that a material slowdown across many parts of the business is causing considerable pain,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData.
