The online e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported Q4 results after the closing bell on Thursday. Though the company missed our revenue estimate and provided a weak outlook for the ongoing quarter, a big earnings beat has surprised investors, sending the shares soaring.
Earnings per share came in at 45 cents, strongly outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 24 cents and improving hugely from the year-ago loss of 95 cents. This represents the second beat in the last five quarters for Amazon. Revenues climbed 15% year over year to $29.33 billion but fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $29.96 billion due to currency headwinds (read: Best and Worst Performing Currency ETFs of 2014).
The company projects revenue growth of 6–16% to $20.9–$22.9 billion (for which quarter?), much lower than our current estimate of $23.23 billion. Amazon also expects an operating loss of $450 million to income of $50 million in the first quarter compared with income of $146 million in the same period last year.
Market Impact
Despite the revenue miss and disappointing guidance, shares of AMZN climbed more than 12% in after marker hours yesterday on the wide earnings beat. Investors should note that the stock fell 19.6% over the one-year period versus 13% gain for S&P 500 index in the same timeframe. As such, the upward price movement might indicate a turnaround for the company and the earnings beat has brightened its future growth prospects.
Further, Amazon has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and a solid industry rank (in the top 28%) at the time of writing as per the Zacks Industry Rank, suggesting upside potential for the stock in the coming days. Investors seeking to make a play on this turnaround story might look to ETFs having a higher allocation to this Internet giant. Below we have highlighted some of these that would be in focus in the coming days:
Market Vectors Retail (NYSE:RTH)
This fund provides exposure to the 26 largest retail firms by tracking the Market Vectors U.S. Listed Retail 25 Index. Of these, AMZN takes the fourth position in the basket with 7.51% share. The ETF has a certain tilt toward specialty retail, which accounts for 31% share while hypermarkets (16%), drug stores (13%) and department stores (12%) round off to the next three spots.
The product has amassed $185 million in its asset base and charges 35 bps in annual fees. Volume is moderate as it exchanges nearly 58,000 shares per day. RTH has added 1.4% in the year-to-date time frame (read: Should You Keep Holding the Retail ETFs?).
FirstTrust DJ Internet (NYSE:FDN)
This is one of the most popular and liquid ETFs in the broad tech space with AUM of over $2 billion and average daily volume of more than 296,000 shares. The fund tracks the Dow Jones Internet Composite Index and charges 57 bps in fees per year.
In total, the fund holds 41 stocks with Amazon taking the second spot at 7.27%. From a sector look, Internet mobile applications account for three-fifths of the portfolio while Internet retail makes up for 22%. The ETF has lost 2.3% so far this year.
PowerShares NASDAQ Internet (NASDAQ:PNQI)
This fund follows the Nasdaq Internet Index, giving investors exposure to the broad Internet industry. The fund holds about 94 stocks in its basket with AUM of $247.4 million while charging 60 bps in fees per year. It trades in light volume of around 41,000 shares a day (see: all the Technology ETFs here).
Amazon occupies the fifth position with a 7.57% allocation. In terms of industrial exposure, Internet software and services makes up for less than three-fourth share in the basket, followed by Internet retail (25.9%). PNQI is down 1.5% in the year-to-date timeframe.