By Senad Karaahmetovic
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has continued to move lower in pre-market Friday after the e-commerce giant reported mixed results and soft guidance.
Amazon reported Q4 EPS of $0.03, missing the analyst estimate of $0.17. Revenue for the quarter came in at $149.2 billion, above the consensus estimate of $145.64B. Net sales rose by 8.6% year-over-year, driven by a 20% jump in AWS. Still, the company's cloud business missed the consensus. Amazon's e-commerce business also missed estimates as sales fell 2.3% YoY.
"Our relentless focus on providing the broadest selection, exceptional value, and fast delivery drove customer demand in our Stores business during the fourth quarter that exceeded our expectations—and we're appreciative of all our customers who turned to Amazon this past holiday season," said Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, in a statement.
For this quarter, Amazon sees revenue between $121B and $126B with the midpoint of the guidance missing the consensus of $125.1B. The Q1 operating income is seen between $0 and $4.0B, compared with $3.7B in the first quarter of 2022.
Morgan Stanley analysts raised the price target on Amazon stock to $150 per share from the prior $140, saying the results showed "a steep improvement in retail profitability, giving us more confidence in the scale-driven efficiencies/profits ahead."
"While we are reducing our '23/'24 AWS revenue by ~6%/6%… we believe the long-term business opportunity remains intact," the analysts added.
RBC analysts added: "Positively, we think there is heavy focus on improving retail margins through this year where we think strong execution is maximizing demand capture. Less positively, AWS missed revs & margins & guided Q1 down with an accel not starting until Q3 and no assurances on margin stabilization. Adjusting estimates and believe AMZN likely needs margins to surprise on both cloud & retail amidst reacceleration in back half before the stock is likely to work again."