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Amazon impresses with largest profit in its history

By
Lisa Fickenscher
Published Feb. 1, 2018, 9:50 p.m. ET

Unstoppable Amazon turned in another strong quarter, leaving its rivals in the dust during the crucial holiday shopping season.

Revenue in the fourth quarter rose 38 percent, to $60.5 billion, while the Seattle behemoth reported record profits of $2 billion.

Amazon shares were up more than 6 percent, to $1,476, in after-hours trading.

Amazon Founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, with the after-hours stock bump, saw his world-leading net worth jump to a staggering $128.6 billion.

Bezos said Alexa was one of the key drivers of the company’s success.

“Our projections for Alexa were very optimistic and we far exceeded them,” the CEO said in a statement. “We don’t see positive surprises of this magnitude very often — expect us to double down.”

Amazon’s results also beat Wall Street’s forecast for revenue of $59.83 billion.

Despite reports last year that Amazon Prime’s growth in the US may be hitting a wall, Amazon said that it gained more members in 2017 — in both the US and worldwide — than in any other year.

More than five billion items shipped with Prime Worldwide, the company said.

“We continue to see sign-ups for new memberships,” Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said during an earnings call. He didn’t elaborate.

India, the CFO noted, “continues to be a good story for us,” where “more Prime members joined in the first year than we’ve seen in any country in our history.”

Management said that consumers can expect Amazon to “continue to lower prices at Whole Foods” and that Amazon’s “biggest effort will continue to be on consumables and fresh food.”

In fact, numerous reports have pointed out that Amazon.com shoppers are frequently told that items are out of stock, an issue management said it’s aware of.

“Price decreases have brought up demand, and the out-of-stock issues are tied to increased demand,” Olsavsky conceded. “Where there are issues, they will be corrected.”

Amazon’s revenue from retail, the majority of which comes from Whole Foods, is now 7 percent of Amazon’s revenue, or $4.52 billion, a number that was not reported last year.

Despite adding 30 percent more square feet in fulfillment space last year, Amazon experienced few delivery hiccups, management said on the call.

“This was probably one of the cleanest quarters,” Olsavsky said.