Amazon misses mark with quarterly earnings, shares fall 5 percent

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos praised his company's performance during the third quarter of 2016 on Thursday, as its earnings report showed a 29 percent increase in net sales over the third quarter of 2015. Bezos said Amazon's Alexa assistant played a big role in the success of the company this year. However, the earnings were lower than what analysts expected. File Photo by Phil McCarten/UPI | License Photo

SEATTLE, Oct. 28 (UPI) — Amazon.com’s revenue and profit for the third quarter of 2016 wasn’t what analysts were expecting.

In its quarterly earnings report, the online retailer posted $32.7 billion in revenue — up nearly 30 percent over $25.3 billion last year.

Shares of Amazon, though, declined nearly 5 percent in trading Thursday.

Overall, Amazon’s profit for the third quarter was $252 million, or 59 cents per share — an increase over $79 million from Q3 2015.

The company’s earnings were below the 79 cent per share profit many analysts were expecting.

Amazon expressed confidence going forward with new and emerging products in a news release Thursday.

“Alexa may be Amazon’s most loved invention yet — literally — with over 250,000 marriage proposals from customers and counting. And she’s just getting better,” CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “Because Alexa’s brain is in the cloud, we can easily and continuously add to her capabilities and make her more useful — wait until you see some of the surprises the team is working on now.”

For the fourth quarter, Amazon predicted net sales of $42-$45 billion.

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